Thanks to Lyndon Johnson, Attorney General Eric Holder Can Overrule State Decision
State Senator Phil Shoopman briefed the Greenville County Republican Party Executive Committee on the new congressional district boundaries drawn by a senate committee on which Shoopman served. Lines must be redrawn after the census each 10 years, to equalize the population in each congressional district.
Due to population growth in the Palmetto State, the state will now have 7 congressmen instead of 6. Five of the six districts are now represented by Republicans.
The senator used the map of congressional districts and chart shown on Page 16 of this issue to illustrate his message.
Governor Haley signed the bill approving the new congressional district lines Monday, but the governor can be overruled by the Obama Administration due to a fifty-year old law imposed on six southern states by President Lyndon Johnson because they cast their votes for Sen. Barry Goldwater when Goldwater challenged Johnson in the 1964 presidential election.
Johnson had the congress insert into the Civil Rights Act a provision requiring the 6 states that supported Goldwater to have any legislation passed by the states that impacted voting in any way be reviewed and ruled on by the justice department.
The law and court rulings since the law was passed impose a bizarre list of rules on the punished states that are not imposed on the other 44 states.
Shoopman explained that under the Johnson Civil Rights Law, redrawn lines may not reduce the percentage of black residents in a district.
The Sixth Congressional District, represented by James Clyburn, the state’s only Democrat Congressman, has a majority black population. The new district, as drawn by the Senate and approved by the Governor has a white majority. Shoopman believes it is certain that the Justice Department under Attorney General Holder will disapprove the South Carolina reapportionment plan. Should that happen, it will be sent back to the state with instructions to redraw the lines or the plan will go to a federal court in Washington, D. C. and the court will redraw the lines. The goal of the Obama Administration will be to attempt to redraw the lines in such a way as to create a Seventh District with a Democrat majority.
Many Democrats have been led to believe that the federal abuse of the six states was imposed as part of the civil rights law to punish the six southern states for election abuses during the “Jim Crow” days. The same people tend to ignore the historical fact that racial segregation and limitations on voting by black citizens was imposed and maintained by Democrat elected officials in the “solid” Democrat South.
Barry Goldwater caused the first crack in the solid segregated Democrat hold on the Southern states. Hence President Johnson’s retaliation against the Goldwater supporters that has lasted for 50 years.
Rep. Garry Smith briefed the Executive Committee on the accomplishments of the South Carolina House of Representatives during 2011. Some of the bills passed by the House were held up in the Senate where several former Democrats who changed their labels to maintain power and get reelected are in leadership positions, but do not subscribe to the conservative South Carolina Republican Party Platform.
Democrats can pretend to be Republicans in South Carolina because Democrats are allowed by state election laws to vote in Republican Primary elections and help select the opponents of their Democrat candidates.
Studies of the last presidential preference primary indicates that 25 percent of the voters in the Republican primary that chose John McCain were Democrats who crossed over.
This is why the Greenville County Republican Party Executive Committee is taking a lead in attempting to change the law so that members of the opposition party will not be able to cross over and pick the candidates for their opponents.
Attorney Stephen Brown, one of the lawyers representing the Greenville organization, briefed the Executive Committee on the status of the current legal action that is challenging the South Carolina Election Law on the basis that it violates the Constitution by prohibiting freedom of association, and therefore allows anyone to participate in a private club's business.
The law could be easily changed by the legislature, however, despite the appearance of a Republican majority in both houses, there are not enough “real” Republicans in Columbia to pass the bill.
For more information from the SC House of Representatives click HERE.
