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For the second day in a row the Supreme Court attracted its full quota of attention. The same three correspondents who filed on affirmative action on Monday filed on the Voting Rights Act: all three -- NBC's Pete Williams, CBS' Jan Crawford, ABC's Terry Moran -- were assigned to lead off their network's newscast. CBS and ABC both followed up from the Deep South to check if the Justices' ruling that times have changed rang true: CBS' Mark Strassmann from Philadelphia Miss, ABC's Steve Osunsami from Shelby County Ala. Needless to say, the Court's decision to strike down key restrictions in the act was Story of the Day.

The ruling revoked so-called pre-clearance: the extra burden placed on nine southern states, and several other jurisdictions, that any changes in voting rules or procedures had to be approved as non-discriminatory in advance by the Department of Justice. Elsewhere in the nation, discriminatory rules may be challenged in court, but only after they go into effect. Congress selected those nine states for special scrutiny in 1965 and the Court ordered that a contemporary list be drawn up.

ABC's Terry Moran included a soundbite obtained by his colleague Jeff Zeleny in his report. It was from Rep John Lewis, who attended the act's signing ceremony back in 1965: "A dagger in the very heart of the Voting Rights Act." Moran and NBC's Pete Williams both pointed to Texas, which is already putting a previously un-pre-cleared Voter ID law into effect
Andrew Tyndall 6/27/13 7:11:51 pm

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