Supreme Court Upholds Restriction on RNC Program that Supresses the Vote in Communities of Color
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to lift 30-year restrictions on a Republican National Committee (RNC) program that intimidates voters in communities of color. The Supreme Court did not comment on this decision.
The restriction came about after the Democratic National Committee (DNC) sued the RNC for enlisting off-duty sheriffs and police officers to patrol polling places in minority precincts in New Jersey during a 1981 gubernatorial election. The next year, the RNC agreed not to carry out some programs it claimed were designed to combat voter fraud and to have the other reviewed by a federal court.
After unsuccessfully trying to get a federal judge to get rid of the consent decree in 2008, the RNC appealed, lost, and ultimately turned to the Supreme Court. RNC lawyers argued the decree had become "antiquated and was being used increasingly as a political weapon," dropping their previous argument that the measure was no longer necessary because former RNC Chair Michael Steele is African-American.
The DNC argued the restrictions were still needed and said that the RNC had failed to establish that the decree "precluded it from conducting appropriate poll watching activities in aid of preventing fraud."
....An RNC official told HuffPost that the organization will continue to abide by the terms of the consent decree and had no further plans to get it lifted by the court. The restrictions are currently set to expire in 2017 unless the DNC proves additional violations by the RNC.
It's important to note that the consent decree only bars the RNC and the New Jersey Republican Party from engaging in this voter suppression tactic. Other Republican state committees and non-party groups like True the Vote can still engage in these activities without violating the consent decree, although they could be subject to newly filed legal challenges if they do so.
