Voting Rights Act of 1965

"This clearly written handbook brings together a great deal of information about fundamental political rights in this country and will be of interest well beyond the legal community." Reference Books Bulletin

Challenging trends in Supreme Court decisions on civil rights, the author of this book criticizes the Court's postmodern equal protection and seeks to demonstrate that legislative and judicial history still matter for public policy.

This up-to-date collection of essays addresses key elements of the law and politics of voting rights: the Supreme Court's jurisprudence, the impact of the Voting Rights Act, and the opportunities for enhanced minority representation posed by alternative electoral systems.

'A strong and well-informed set of reviews of efforts and achievements of African Americans and their political allies across the broadest spectrum of arenas of government.' -Rufus P. Browning, San Francisco State University

This text examines discrimination against blacks. It reviews civil rights laws and legal precedents and where they have not been effective.

This controversial book shatters the myth that twenty million Hispanics are a permanent underclass. Linda Chavez tells the largely untold story of Hispanic progress and achievement and considers the radical implications for bilingual education, immigration policy, and affirmative action.

The U.S. House of Representatives vastly overrepresents white males and underrepresents "minorities" and women. This essay collection examines the causes of the unrepresentative character of the House and analyzes reform possibilities, including alternative electoral systems, enlargement of the House, term limits, a new election campaign finance system, and more effective regulation of campaign contributions and expenditures.

Is it ever legitimate to redraw electoral districts on the basis of race? In its long struggle with this question, the U.S. Supreme Court has treated race-conscious redistricting either as a requirement of political fairness or as an exercise in corrosive racial quotas. Cutting through these contradictory positions, Keith Bybee examines the theoretical foundations of the Court's decisions and the ideological controversy those decisions have engendered. He uncovers erroneous assumptions about political identity on both sides of the debate and formulates new terms on which minority representation can be pursued.As Bybee shows, the Court has for the last twenty years encouraged a division between individualist and group concepts of political identity. He demonstrates convincingly that both individualist and group proponents share the misguided notion that political identity is formed prior to and apart from politics itself. According to Bybee, this "mistaken identity" should be abandoned for a more flexible, politically informed understanding of who the "people" really are. Thus, a misdirected debate will be replaced by a more considered discussion in which the people can speak for themselves, even as the Court speaks on their behalf. Engaged in the politics of minority representation, the Court will be able to help citizens articulate and achieve more fruitful forms of political community.

Cunningham goes into the Department of Justice to examine how it forced states to maximize minority congressional seats in the Nineties. He analyzes the political, legal, and bureaucratic circumstances that evolved into a transformative policy and suggests how the Department should respond to a decade of judicial reversals.