HARRISBURG, June 25, 2013 – State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, Democratic whip and member of the Senate State Government Committee, today said the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision on the Voting Rights Act could spell bad news for Pennsylvania:

“The decision today was nothing short of depressing. After all the blood, sweat, tears and lives laid down by countless Americans who strove for equal protection and the realization of our credo of ‘one man, one vote,’ the Roberts Court chose to erode that work.

“The protections of sections 4 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act were designed and implemented because it was clear that, left to their own devices, politicians and those who would influence them would seek ways to rig the vote, at times based on prejudice if not outright racism. We’ve seen a modern incarnation of that in voter ID, an insidious scheme that has cropped up across the country, including Pennsylvania, geared more toward voter disenfranchisement than voter integrity.

“It is more than evident that the right to a fair vote and its consequences remain a point of contention for some in this nation. Now we have the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that this Congress – a body motivated by politics and not jurisprudence, one of the most dysfunctional, ideologically driven ever seated – should decide how states with a noted history of disenfranchising voters should be monitored.

“It’s ironic that those who describe themselves mostly as patriotic would take steps to limit voter rights. There should be nothing that compromises your ability to vote. But instead of taking the time to affirm the voting rights of all, this court has chosen to nick away at the foundation of suffrage. As a child of the Civil Rights Movement, as an American, I’m saddened today,” Williams said.

The NAACP will hold a rally at the Capitol, Thursday, July 11, from 1 p.m. – 3 p.m., to upend Pennsylvania’s voter ID law.

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