WEBVTT - Bloomberg Law Brief: Contentious Year for Voting Rights (Audio)

0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.679
<v Speaker 1>Well, now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief,

0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:06.080
<v Speaker 1>exploring legal issues in the news and Today, Bloomberg Law

0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:09.760
<v Speaker 1>host Greg Store speaks with Kimberly Robinson, a Supreme Court

0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:13.240
<v Speaker 1>reporter for Bloomberg b NA, and Rebecca Green, a professor

0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:16.160
<v Speaker 1>at William and Mary Law School, to discuss how allegations

0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:22.080
<v Speaker 1>of voter fraud and redistricting shape the historical U. S election. Kimberly,

0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:25.200
<v Speaker 1>arguably the biggest court ruling of the year came in

0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:29.720
<v Speaker 1>a case involving North Carolina's voting restrictions. Give us a

0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:32.400
<v Speaker 1>quick synopsis of that place. Well, this is really an

0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:34.920
<v Speaker 1>extraordinary decision. I think the important thing to keep in

0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:36.760
<v Speaker 1>the back of your mind when I'm talking about this

0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:41.000
<v Speaker 1>case is the fact that race and voting are very

0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:43.519
<v Speaker 1>much correlated in the South, especially in North Carolina. So

0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.760
<v Speaker 1>it turns out that most minorities tend to vote democratically.

0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.920
<v Speaker 1>A court here struck down UH North Carolina's voter I

0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:54.720
<v Speaker 1>D laws and some other restrictions that it said has

0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:59.480
<v Speaker 1>had surgically UH singled out African Americans, and it was

0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:02.040
<v Speaker 1>extored area. Because there are really two ways that a

0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:05.199
<v Speaker 1>court can strike down UH. Some of these voting restrictions.

0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:08.440
<v Speaker 1>One is if the effect has a discriminatory purpose. Um.

0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:11.640
<v Speaker 1>That the other is the intent of the legislature is

0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:15.000
<v Speaker 1>to discriminate against minorities. And that final one is what

0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:18.199
<v Speaker 1>the court here said that you know, the legislature really

0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:22.399
<v Speaker 1>intended to disenfranchise minority voters. Rebecca, let me ask you

0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:25.600
<v Speaker 1>just a broader question as you look back on what

0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:27.520
<v Speaker 1>do you think is that the big message of the

0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:33.360
<v Speaker 1>big takeaway from this this year in election law? Yeah?

0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:35.679
<v Speaker 1>So um. For me, as I sort of look back

0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:38.160
<v Speaker 1>at it all, I think what is clear is the

0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:42.560
<v Speaker 1>fragility of public confidence in our elections. You know, elections

0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.920
<v Speaker 1>only work if the public has confidence in the outcome. Um.

0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:49.760
<v Speaker 1>And that confidence was under explicit attack in two thousands sixteen.

0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:51.960
<v Speaker 1>We have a long history, of course of the losing

0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:56.040
<v Speaker 1>side alleging fraud in elections, but this year felt very different. Right.

0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:58.400
<v Speaker 1>We had the integrity of the election being called into

0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:03.320
<v Speaker 1>the question before uh election day. Uh. That said. What's

0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:07.080
<v Speaker 1>extraordinary extraordinary also about two thousand sixteen is how smoothly

0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:12.160
<v Speaker 1>the election actually went. Before the election, voting rates advocates

0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:14.960
<v Speaker 1>were bracing for widespread problems at the polls. But as

0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.240
<v Speaker 1>it happened, UM, with few a few exceptions, UH, the

0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:23.080
<v Speaker 1>election proceeded without major incident. So I think the challenge

0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:25.680
<v Speaker 1>going forward is figuring out how to shore up public

0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:28.440
<v Speaker 1>confidence in our elections. Some think the way to do

0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:31.880
<v Speaker 1>this is to tighten election rules UM. Others see this

0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.320
<v Speaker 1>tightening as a pretext a way to restrict certain people

0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:36.880
<v Speaker 1>from accessing the ballot. So figuring out how to navigate

0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:39.800
<v Speaker 1>between those two perspectives seems to be the difficult task

0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:44.000
<v Speaker 1>ahead that Skimberly Robinson, a Supreme Court reporter for a

0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:47.360
<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg b NA, and Rebecca Green, a professor at William

0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.160
<v Speaker 1>and Mary Law School, speaking with the Bloomberg's Gregg Store

0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:52.639
<v Speaker 1>even us in a Bloomberg Law weekdays at one pm

0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.560
<v Speaker 1>Wall Street Time here on Bloomberg Radio Now among the

0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.880
<v Speaker 1>legal stories from Bloomberg Law. Dylan Roof has again been

0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.000
<v Speaker 1>found competent to stand trial in last year's massacre at

0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.519
<v Speaker 1>a church in South Carolina. They left nine parishioners dead

0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:07.240
<v Speaker 1>at a Bible study. After a second hearing over his

0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:09.560
<v Speaker 1>mental capacity, a judge ruled not only that Roof can

0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.520
<v Speaker 1>be sentenced for his crimes, but can represent himself in

0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.359
<v Speaker 1>those proceedings. The same jury the last month took less

0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:17.680
<v Speaker 1>than two hours to find Roof guilty of hate crimes,

0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:20.920
<v Speaker 1>obstruction of religion and other accounts. Returns to court tomorrow

0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:24.160
<v Speaker 1>to be to begin to consider his sentence. Thus his

0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:26.600
<v Speaker 1>morning's Bloomberg Lab Brrie. If you can find more illegal

0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:29.880
<v Speaker 1>news at Bloomberg law dot com and Bloomberg DNA dot com.

0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:33.280
<v Speaker 1>Attorneys will find exceptional legal research and business development tools

0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.680
<v Speaker 1>there as well. Visit Bloomberg Law dot com and Bloomberg

0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:39.080
<v Speaker 1>DNA dot com for more information