Tuesday brought a monumental decision from the Supreme Court, striking down a central provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In a 5-4 decision split along ideological lines, the Court ruled that the law’s formula for determining which states must receive permission from the federal government to alter their voting laws is unconstitutional. It is now up to a highly divided Congress to pass new legislation to revive the Voting Rights Act–a considerable challenge considering the recent levels of gridlock on the Hill. Chris Hayes will dive into the decision and what it means for civil rights with Democratic Rep. John Conyers, Ranking Minority Member on the House Judiciary Committee, and Debo Adegbile, Special Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who argued the case in question. Julie Fernandes, Senior Policy Analyst for the Open Society Institute and Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice and Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota will also join the table. Plus, Chris Hayes will explain what the Supreme Court’s ruling means for politics as we approach the 2014 midterm elections.
Later, Chris Hayes will discuss Tuesday’s other big story, President Obama’s new climate change proposals. Speaking at Georgetown University, the president revealed his plan to create new carbon standards for power plants and to base his approval of the Keystone XL pipeline on its level of carbon emissions.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, former New Jersey Gov. and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, now president of The Whitman Strategy Group, a consulting firm specializing in energy and environmental issues, and Tim DeChristopher, climate activist and co-founder of the environmental group Peaceful Uprising, will join the table.
We’ll give you the latest on the hunt for Edward Snowden, which continued Tuesday after Russia announced it would not comply with the United States’ extradition demand.
Rachel Simon
Rachel Simon is a writer and editor based in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the author of “Pickleball for All: Everything but the ‘Kitchen’ Sink.” Her work has been published in The New York Times, Glamour, Vulture, Teen Vogue and more. You can find her at @rsimon113.