Steve Russell: Supreme Court pulls teeth out of voting rights

June 25, 2013, was a great day to be white in the United States. In one day, the Supreme Court pulled the teeth of two laws with an excellent track record of providing remedies for racial discrimination, the Voting Rights Act and the Indian Child Welfare Act.

In the VRA case, the SCOTUS instructed us that equal protection of the law applies as among the states by tradition, and proceeded to side with the states, mostly in the Old Confederacy, that had been subject to “preclearance” of changes in their election laws by the Department of Justice.

The timing of this case is amazing, given the multitude of voter suppression laws aimed at minority turnout in the 2012 elections.

Yes, “voter suppression” and not “voter fraud.” You don’t need the unfortunate slips of the tongue by some legislators to understand that. I’m from Texas and so I have been educated about voter fraud up close and personal.