The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, which Democrats were using to sway local institutions and advance an anti-illegal immigration plan, was overturned by the Orange County Supreme Court of New York.
The legislation, which was passed into law in 2022, may in some cases require municipalities to get pre-clearance before altering how their voting systems are run. The innovative pre-clearance regulations were applied to “local institutions or school districts in New York” in accordance with Spectrum News 1.
Some people were also suing cities for how their votes are currently being conducted as a result of the policy.
Instead of having voters in a particular region choose each chair, the city of Newburgh uses an “at-large” voting system, which means that all voters can cast their ballots for all the community board members. However, in January, six black and Hispanic occupants filed a lawsuit against the city and the city board, alleging that the current system prevents them from élising a candidate of their choosing. According to the decision, the issue claimed that as of 2020, Newburgh had a population of approximately 60 percent light, 15 percent dark and 25 percent Spanish.
Despite the decision, the complaint claims that black and Latina voters may be” configured within four or five newly created single-member regions” if “racially polarized election” is inhibiting these citizens ‘ ability to “elect individuals of their selection” or “influence the results of votes is impaired.”
The court has “impose specific solutions in the NYVRA]New York Voting Rights Act,” including a mission for new single-member districts, because allegations of culturally divided election are made,” the complaint claims. The town would be divided into single-member districts where each district would cast its ballot for its member instead of everyone in the town having a chance to vote for the four board members.
However, the court determined that the NYVRA “on its face, classifies people according to their race, color, and national origin.” … Remedies are based on those classifications, and a person can only seek relief if they are racial, color, or of a different national origin. For Plaintiffs to suggest that the NYVRA is not a race-based ( or national origin-based ) statute is simply to deny the obvious”.
Therefore, the court held that” ]t ] he NYVRA is violative of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which is supreme to any law of New York. Therefore, these Defendants and any other political subdivision in the State of New York are hereby STRICKEN in their entirety from any further enforcement or application.
Democrats used the legislation to alter the way elections were conducted in other towns as well. Five Hispanic voters earlier this year intent to force the town to renounce its at-large voting system, leading to a lawsuit against the Town of Mount Pleasant.
The voters claimed that the at-large voting system lacked the majority of the Hispanic population in Sleepy Hollow, one of the three incorporated communities within the Town of Mount Pleasant. According to the suit, there are only 19 % of Mount Pleasant’s population and nearly half of that population in Sleepy Hollow. The plaintiffs claimed that Sleepy Hollow residents would have a better chance of becoming a member of the Mount Pleasant Town Board by switching to a ward-based system.
However, Sleepy Hollow itself, which has its own local government, has only a limited amount of influence from the Mount Pleasant Town Board. The lawsuit’s real goal appeared to be to pressure Mount Pleasant to accept illegal immigrants. The town issued an emergency order last year saying it would not accept illegal immigrants or asylum seekers due to a lack of resources to accommodate the influx of people moving to the New York City suburbs.
The plaintiffs alleged that because” the Hispanic community in Mount Pleasant would be opposed” to the state of emergency, the town is “neglect]ing ] the interests of the Hispanic community”.
However, the emergency order did not affect Sleepy Hollow, which can still accept illegal immigrants. In an effort to do that, they armed the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act with weapons and tried to do so.
The Federalist’s election correspondent, Brianna Lyman. With a degree in international political economy, Brianna received her degree from Fordham University. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
