Court grants standing in voting rights challenge

July 8, 2011 — A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a decision holding that CIR plaintiffs Stephen LaRoque, John Nix and others have standing to pursue their challenge of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The decision is a big step forward in CIR’s effort to strike down Section 5, which requires some twenty Southern jurisdictions to pre-clear changes in voting procedures, including the drawing of voting district lines. Under Section 5, the Justice Department will not clear changes in voting procedure unless they maximize the ability of minority voters to elect their “candidate of choice.”