The Voting Rights Act turned 53 yesterday, and that's as good an occasion as any to remind you to tell your Congressfolk to pass H.R. 2978/S. 1419, the Voting Rights Advancement Act, as CREDO helps you do. As you know, our Supreme Court gutted Sec. 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, ruling that it unfairly targeted Southern states -- but the Court all but invited Congress to replace Sec. 4(b) with a provision that doesn't unfairly target Southern states. The Voting Rights Advancement Act should satisfy the Court's interpretation, by requiring any state or municipality, from anywhere in the country, with an established record of voter suppression to submit election law changes to our Department of Justice for pre-clearance. I often say voting is the beginning of your duty as a citizen, but if you can't vote, it's a lot harder to get representatives who won't screw you over repeatedly. So we need the strong protections of the Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Meanwhile, word on the street is that NAFTA renegotiations are coming to a close, so Sign for Good helps you tell your Congressfolk to ensure that any trade deal America signs works for people, not corporations. Specifically, you'll demand an end to the "investor-state dispute settlement" system that nullifies our laws and extracts tribute from the taxpayer for the heinous crime of passing laws that "cost" investors money -- as if money is the only thing that matters in this world! -- and you'll demand better labor and environmental standards, which will dissuade American corporations from moving factories down to Mexico. In other words, you'll be supporting real law and order in America, a law and order that puts people ahead of money and action ahead of posturing. I know, I know, our Whiner-in-Chief loves posturing more than anything, which makes me think that (despite encouraging reports!) we're in for disappointment. But he ain't the last word on anything; we are.
Finally, H.R. 1437/S. 3271, the No Money Bail Act, would (as its title suggests!) outlaw the use of bail money as a condition for pre-trail release. If you read that sentence and you feel you're about to blow a gasket, maybe you should never navigate to this page again. But if you read that sentence and are willing to think about it for a minute, you'll see that a) it costs money to hold people in prison, so municipalities aren't exactly making out like bandits here, and b) holding people in jail before their trial violates the whole principle of innocent-until-proven-guilty that underpins our entire judicial system. That's before you get to the fact that most folks who can't buy their way out of prison are poor and/or black or brown, meaning the whole money bail system is what, folks? Classist and racist, that's what. Hence Roots Action helps you tell your Congressfolk to support real criminal justice reform by passing the No Money Bail Act.
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