Contact: Edward Blum, Director
(703) 505-1922

(Washington, DC) The Project on Fair Representation (POFR), a not-for-profit legal defense foundation that helped provide representation and resources to the plaintiff, applauds the outcome in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder (08-322).

POFR Director Edward Blum said, “With this opinion, the Supreme Court recognizes that thousands of jurisdictions have the right to bailout of the penalty provisions of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. This is a fair and long-overdue outcome.”

In his capacity as a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Blum submitted a comprehensive study to Congress during the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act in 2006 which demonstrated that electoral conditions for minorities were the same as for white voters in the states covered by Section 5. Additionally, Blum testified to Congress that Section 5 had evolved into a partisan gerrymandering tool to protect incumbents of both parties.

Blum added, “The Court has decided for now to rule on statutory grounds, but the language of the opinion leads me to believe they will strike down this provision of the Voting Rights Act on constitutional grounds in a future case.

“Sooner rather than later, the Justices will have this issue before them once again.” Blum said.

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