Congressman Cohen Presides at Hearing on “Oversight of the Voting Rights Act: Potential Legislative Reforms”

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, today presided at a virtual hearing on "Oversight of the Voting Rights Act: Potential Legislative Reforms." The hearing was the sixth on the subject of voting rights this year and comes a day before H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, is expected to be introduced in the House.

In his opening statement, Congressman Cohen said in part:

"Throughout his heroic life, our former colleague and friend, the late John Lewis, often said that ‘the right to vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democracy . . . If we are ever to actualize the true meaning of equality, effective measures such as the Voting Rights Act are still a necessary requirement of democracy.'

"Last month, we marked the one-year anniversary of his passing. Let us not allow another anniversary to go by without ensuring the enactment of legislation bearing his name that would restore the Voting Rights Act to its full effectiveness.

"To that end, under my chairmanship, this Subcommittee has devoted considerable time and resources to taking up John Lewis's call to defend the right to vote, a right that he shed his blood to secure and one that others died to secure. All of us in Congress must re-dedicate ourselves to protecting this most fundamental right at a time when it is once again under severe threat.

"The record we have built over the course of 13 hearings in the last two years is crystal clear—voting discrimination against citizens based on race, color, or language-minority status is a current and worsening problem that Congress must address through a renewed and strengthened Voting Rights Act…

"In the face of the sustained onslaught against voting rights by the states and subdivisions, and the erosion of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court, Congress must act, and we have the power to do so. Our authority to stop race discrimination in voting remains expansive, even by the terms of the Shelby County and Brnovich decisions."

See Chairman Cohen's entire opening statement here.

See the Chairman's questioning of witnesses here and here.

Witnesses at today's hearing were:

• The Honorable Kristen Clarke
  Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Justice
• Mr. Jon M. Greenbaum
  Chief Counsel and Senior Deputy Director, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
• Mr. Wade Henderson
  Interim President and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
• Ms. Sophia Lin Lakin
  Deputy Director, Voting Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union
• Dr. James Peyton McCrary
  Professorial Lecturer in Law, The George Washington University Law School
• Ms. Maureen Riordan
  Litigation Counsel, Public Interest Legal Foundation
• Mr. Thomas A. Saenz
  President and General Counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
• Mr. Samuel Spital
  Director of Litigation, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
• Mr. Hans A. von Spakovsky
  Senior Legal Fellow, The Heritage Foundation
• Ms. Wendy R. Weiser
  Vice President, Democracy, Brennan Center for Justice

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