If the courts consistently applied precedent, a lot of this would already be stopped! Thing is, it feels like SCOTUS stopped following it!

Guess what, precedent isn’t gone — it’s dormant!

Preclearance came from Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It required certain states and counties — mostly in the South — to get federal approval before changing any voting rules.

This included changes like:

• redistricting maps
• voter ID laws
• polling place closures
• early voting cuts
• registration rules
• ballot access changes

They could not take effect until the federal government said:

“This change does not discriminate against minority voters.”

This was a proactive protection — it stopped discrimination before it happened.

What preclearance prevented

Before 2013, preclearance blocked:

• strict voter ID laws
• racially gerrymandered maps
• polling place closures in Black neighborhoods
• cuts to early voting
• discriminatory registration rules

The Department of Justice blocked over 1,000 discriminatory changes between 1965 and 2013.

Without preclearance, many of those changes would have gone into effect.

What happened after preclearance was removed

Within hours of the Shelby ruling:

• Texas implemented a voter ID law previously blocked as discriminatory.
• North Carolina passed a sweeping voting law that a court later said targeted Black voters “with almost surgical precision.”
• States began closing polling places in minority communities.
• Redistricting maps like Tennessee’s became far easier to pass.

This is why you’re seeing the pattern you described — and why it feels like it’s spreading.

Who had to follow preclearance?

The areas covered were determined by Section 4(b), which used data on:

• literacy tests
• voter suppression history
• low minority turnout

This included states like:

• Alabama
• Georgia
• Mississippi
• Louisiana
• South Carolina
• Virginia
• Texas
• Arizona

And many counties in other states.

These were places with long, documented histories of suppressing Black voters.

Here are 11 things you should know about the MOVE Philadelphia bombing

On May 13, 1985, a bomb was dropped on a row house in Philadelphia, unleashing a relentless fire that eventually burned down 61 houses, killed 11 people (including five children), and injured dozens.

The fire department stood by idly. The Philadelphia Police Department did the same. The fire raged on, swallowing up home after home until more than 200 were without shelter.

It’s a shameful part of recent American history that’s somehow been buried under for years and other destructions that have fallen on the city of Philadelphia. NewsOne decided to take a trip back in time to explore what happened the day America bombed its own people.

– The MOVE Organization is a Philadelphia-based Black liberation group that preached revolution and advocated the return to a natural lifestyle. They lived communally and vowed to lead a life uninterrupted by the government, police, or technology. They were passionate supporters of animal rights. Members adopted vegan diets and the surname “Africa.” Often times they would engage in public demonstrations related to issues they deemed important.

– MOVE did, however, have a past with the police. Since its inception in 1972, the group was looked at as a threat to the Philadelphia Police Department.  In 1978, police raided their Powelton Village homes and as a result, one police officer died after being shot in the head. Nine MOVE members were arrested, charged with third-degree murder, and sent to prison. They argued that the police officer was shot in the back of his head on his way into the home, challenging the claim that he was shot by members inside the house. Eventually, the group relocated to their infamous house on 6221 Osage Street.

There are differing reports about the group and how troublesome they actually were. According to the AP, neighbors complained about their house on Osage, which was barricaded with plywood and allegedly contained a multitude of weapons. It has been said that the group built a giant wooden bunker on the roof and used a bullhorn to “scream obscenities at all hours of the night,” angering those living in nearby row houses. Eventually, they turned to city officials for help, which put into motion the events of May 13, 1985.

On that day, armed police, the fire department, and city officials gathered at the house in an attempt to clear it out and arrest MOVE members who had been indicted for crimes like parole violation and illegal possession of firearms. When police tossed tear gas canisters into the home, MOVE members fired back. In turn, the police discharged their guns.

– Eventually, a police helicopter flew over the home and dropped two bombs on the row house. A ferocious blaze followed.

– Witnesses and MOVE members say that when members started to run out of the burning structure to escape a fiery death, police continued to fire their weapons.

– The fire department delayed putting out the flames. After the blaze, they claimed they didn’t want to put their men in harm’s way, because MOVE members were still firing their guns. But MOVE members and witnesses say the wait was deliberate.

– In the end, 11 people, including MOVE’s founder John Africa, were dead. Five children died in the home.

– This is the only child survivor (see picture below). His name is Birdie Africa, but it was later changed to Michael Ward. He ran out of the burning house naked and covered in flames. He survived his third-degree burns and went on to live a normal life, although he was scarred forever by the lifelong burns on his abdomen, arms, and face.

– Michael Ward was found dead on Friday, Sept. 20, 2013 in the jacuzzi aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean. He was on vacation with his family. Initial autopsy reports say he drowned.

– In the end, no one from the city government was criminally charged.

SOURCE: AP, Philly, Independent research | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty

image: AP  and vpr.org

Black History Month

On January 3, 1957 Dalip Singh Saund is sworn in as the congressional representative of California’s 29th district. Known to many as “Judge,” and also nicknamed “the Peacemaker,” he is the first Asian, first Indian American, first Sikh and first follower of a non-Abrahamic religion to be elected to the United States Congress.

Born and raised in Punjab while India was under British rule, Saund attended the University of Punjab and was active in the independence movement led by Mohandas Gandhi. He enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley in 1920, earning a PhD in mathematics four years later. He married and moved to a ranch in Westmoreland, California, getting a friend to sign the deed for him in order to circumvent a state law that prohibited Asians from owning land. His time as a farmer, witnessing the struggles of his neighbors during the Great Depression, made him a fan of the New Deal and a lifelong Democrat. Saund organized in favor of allowing Indians to become naturalized American citizens, which Congress finally approved in 1946. Three years later, Saund became a citizen, and the following year he ran for a judgeship. Despite facing persistent racism—one reporter asked him if he would supply turbans to all those who entered his court—he won by 13 votes.

In 1956, Saund ran for his home district’s open congressional seat. Despite a legal challenge from his Democratic primary opponent, who unsuccessfully argued that Saund had not been a citizen long enough to serve in Congress, Saund won the nomination and defeated famous female aviator Jacqueline Cochran Odlum for the seat. He credited his victory to the connections he had made in the district, particularly to small farmers and small business owners. He served three terms in Congress, where he became known as a champion of small farmers and civil rights legislation and worked to improve the United States’ relations with Mexico as well as his native India.