Op-Ed: State Rep. Edward Lindsey Applauds Supreme Court Decision

By Representative Edward Lindsey

Today, the United States Supreme Court looked up and recognized reality --  Georgia and the rest of the South have advanced a great deal since 1965.  In so doing, it moved toward restoring common sense to our federal civil rights laws.  It found that Section 4 (b) of the Voting Rights Act (“VRA”), as applied today against state’s such as Georgia, is unconstitutional and, in doing so, requires that our nation analyze  questions regarding alleged discrimination in voting laws through the eyes of America in 2013 – not 1965. 

As the Georgia Republican House Majority Whip, I helped draft and push through Georgia’s 2011 redistricting plans for our State House, State Senate, and Congressional delegation through the Republican Majority General Assembly.  I took great pride in the fact that our plans were precleared by the U.S. Department of Justice.  It was the first time since the passage of the VRA in 1965 that the Georgia General Assembly’s original decennial maps had not been rejected by the Justice Department or the federal courts.

Still, this pride was tempered by the utter injustice of the VRA – relying on decades old irrelevant  and outdated data under Section 4 (b) -- continuing to single out in modern times Georgia and other Southern states for the misdeeds of its former leadership  a half century ago.

I have hanging in my House leadership office the pictorial of the 1963-64 State House in which my grandfather served and the pictorial of today’s State House.  The one from my grandfather’s era is all white and all male – and, I might add, all Democrat.  Needless to say, the modern pictorial looks far different and better. 

Therefore, I applaud the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to no longer burden our state with the sins of generations long past.  Citizens who believe they are discriminated against still retain the right to go to court to seek redress against alleged wrongs under Section 2 of the VRA, but Georgia and its people will no longer be tainted with the presumption of guilt on this issue.  That is how it should be in modern America.