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House Democrats introduce bill named for late John Lewis

17 August 2021
 Dan Ackermann

House Democrats introduced a voting rights bill that was named in honor of the late Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.), Rep. Teri Sewell (D-Al) announced on Tuesday.

Driving the news: The bill would restore elements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and allow the federal government to block certain state changes to election laws it found to be discriminatory.

  • "Today, old battles have become new again as we face the most coordinated effort to restrict the right to vote in generations & a Supreme Court keen on destroying our nation's most consequential civil rights law, the Voting Rights Act," Sewell said.

Why it matters: Democrats are trying to counter a wave of new voting restrictions in Republican states. Any bill faces an uphill battle in the tied Senate where it would need 60 votes to pass.

Background: In 2013, the Supreme Court gutted a provision of the Voting Rights Act that allowed for regulation of new election laws. The provision primarily affected Southern states which had a history of discrimination.

  • In July, the Court upheld a set of voting restrictions in Arizona making it much more difficult for the Justice Department to challenge new voting laws.

Flashback: Lewis died in July 2020, and Democratic lawmakers and other civil rights leaders renewed calls for voting rights protections.

The big picture: The House is poised to vote on the measure next week. They passed For the People, an expansive election and anti-corruption bill, in March, which was ultimately blocked by Republican senators.

  • "Across the country, we continue to bear witness to GOP attacks on voting rights with restrictive laws and voter-ID rules to prevent people of color, students, and others from having their voices heard at the ballot box," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Tuesday.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.