Dem lawmaker: Restore the Voting Rights Act

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Friday used the upcoming 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” to renew his efforts to update the Voting Rights Act.

Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of a clash that left more than 50 civil rights marchers injured after police attacked the marchers as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.

{mosads}Leahy argues that strengthening the Voting Rights Act would be an appropriate way to commemorate to the anniversary.

“The best way we can honor those brave people, who marched and put themselves, their lives on the line … we ought to not just give speeches, not just give medals, but actually do something,” he said in a video released by his office. “It’s time to re-pass, to update the Voting Rights Act, to restore it.”

The Supreme Court in 2013 stuck down a formula that determined which state and local governments had to get approval before changing their voting laws.

Leahy introduced a bill last year that would have updated the procedures, but said he said he was unable to get “a single Republican to co-sponsor it.” The legislation stalled in the Senate.

“Let’s put politics aside, let’s remember how these people risked their lives 50 years ago,” he said.

He is expected to reintroduce voting rights legislation soon.