Politics, the Man with Big Role Behind the Voter Acts Supreme Court works for Koch funded , Conservative Think Tank, while also Playing an Important role in the Current Texas Affirmative Action Supreme Court Case

The election is over but the game is still be played out by Republicans as we prepare the 2016 elections.
Like in 2012 where we saw a movement of Republican leaders trying to suppress the vote through Voter ID laws; then seeking to prevent groups to Register others to vote, to even trying to change how the Electoral College is awarded, this Voter Act Supreme Court case serves as another example of Republican’s plan to suppress votes. In 2013 and this Supreme Court case involving the county of Shelby, Alabama v. Eric Holder would be no difference. So imagine my not surprise that the man that the man that push this is also tied to the Texas Affirmative Action case in Texas. It is also headed to the Supreme Court. But what stood out the most was that Edward Blum works for the American Enterprise Institute. The American Enterprise Institute has easily received over six-figure form the Koch Brothers. Blum wrote the book, The Unintended Consequences of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. It was Published by AEI Press. The AEI stands for the American Enterprise Institute. Blum is also the director of Project of Fair Representation.  Blum was also the Chairmen of

Previously blogged
Ethnic Studies and Texas State Board of Education Just Don’t Mix, Other States also Share the Same View (Affirmative Action back in the Spot light)

A press release concerning the Shelby case from Edward Blum, representing Project of Fair Representation is below.

Some AEI scholars are considered to be some of the leading architects of the second Bush administration’s public policy.[3] More than twenty AEI scholars and fellows served either in a Bush administration policy post or on one of the government’s many panels and commissions. Among the prominent former government officials now affiliated with AEI are former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, now an AEI senior fellow; former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities Lynne Cheney, a longtime AEI senior fellow; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, now an AEI senior fellow; former Dutch member of parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an AEI visiting fellow; and former deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz, now an AEI visiting scholar. Other prominent individuals affiliated with AEI include Kevin Hassett, Frederick W. Kagan, Leon Kass, Charles Murray, Michael Novak, Norman J. Ornstein, Richard Perle, Radek Sikorski, Christina Hoff Sommers, and Peter J. Wallison.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Enterprise_Institute
Bert Rein, one of the lawyer on the case was a panelist for the Manhatta Instituete.
The Manhattan Institute received $19,470,416 in grants from 1985–2005, from foundations such as the Koch Family Foundations, the John M. Olin Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, the Scaife Foundations, and the Smith Richardson Foundation.[5] The Manhattan Institute does not disclose its corporate funding, but the Capital Research Center listed its contributors as Bristol-Myers Squibb, ExxonMobil, Chase Manhattan, Cigna, Sprint Nextel, Reliant Energy, Lincoln Financial Group Foundation, and Merrill Lynch.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Institute_for_Policy_Research
Manhattan Institute Past Events 2002
June 17, 2002 | Washington DC
Center For Legal Policy Conference
[Co-Sponsored with the Institute of Legal Reform at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce]
Topic: “Class Actions/Aggregations in Magnet Courts; The Empirical Evidence”
Panelists: Jim Wootton, Judyth Pendell (Welcoming Remarks); John Beisner, Lester Brickman, George Priest, Bert Rein, Richard Burke, Jeffrey Greenbaum, Charles Kolb, Hon. Stephen Markman, Edward Pickle

Project on Fair Representation
109 North Henry Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
(703) 505-1922
http://www.projectonfairrepresentation.org
edwblum@aol.com
Press Release
For Immediate Release: Contact: Edward Blum
Nov. 9, 2012 (703) 505-1922
Supreme Court to Hear Challenge
to Certain Provisions of Voting Rights Act
(Washington, DC) Today, the Project on Fair Representation applauds the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Shelby Co., Ala v. Holder, a case that challenges the constitutionality of the 2006 reauthorization of Sections 4(b) and 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act subjects certain States and political subdivisions to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which invades the sovereignty of these “covered” jurisdictions by requiring them to “preclear” all voting changes with the United States Department of Justice. All of nine states and parts of seven others are subject to these provisions.
Shelby County is a “covered” jurisdiction because, in 1965, the Attorney General determined that Alabama was using a prohibited voting test and less than 50% of the persons of voting age residing in Alabama voted in the presidential election of November 1964. As a result, Shelby County is regularly required to engage in the costly and burdensome process of submitting all voting changes, no matter how minor, to the Department of Justice prior to implementation. Shelby County brought this challenge on April 27, 2010 arguing that Congress exceeded its enforcement authority under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and thus violated the Tenth Amendment and Article IV of the Constitution. The lawsuit claims that Sections 4(b) and 5 were reauthorized by Congress in 2006 for another 25 years without sufficient evidence of current intentional racial discrimination in voting by “covered” jurisdictions. Furthermore, by continuing to base coverage on voting practices and data from 1964, the reauthorized statute does not take into account either the substantial improvements that have occurred in these jurisdictions during the last four decades or that any lingering voting discrimination is the same or worse in non-covered jurisdictions. The Project on Fair Representation, a Virginia-based not-for-profit legal foundation, is providing the resources and counsel for the lawsuit. POFR provided counsel to Abigail Fisher in Fisher v. Univ. of Texas which was argued at the Supreme Court on Oct. 10, 2012.
Mr. Frank C. Ellis Jr., the County Attorney of Shelby County, Alabama, is available for
comment. He can be reached at (205) 669-6783.
Edward Blum, director of the Project on Fair Representation, said, “Congress reauthorized the
VRA in 2006 based upon the black voter disenfranchisement in the Deep South that existed in
1965, but those conditions measurably don’t exist anymore.”
In 2009, the Supreme Court avoided the question of the statute’s constitutionality in Northwest
Austin Municipal Utility District No. One v. Holder, but signaled that Sections 4(b) and 5 of the
Act may impose “current burdens and must be justified by current needs.”
Blum noted, “The data proving remarkable changes in racial conditions in these jurisdictions are
irrefutable: Criteria such as minority voter registration rates, election turnout, success of minority
candidates, and other factors, indicate there is no meaningful and quantifiable difference in the
voting rights exercised by minorities in the jurisdictions covered by Section 5 and non-covered
jurisdictions. In fact, the evidence suggests that the covered jurisdictions offer greater opportunity
for minorities to participate at the polls than non-covered ones. Congress knew this in 2006, but
chose to ignore it.”
Blum said, “It makes no sense today for Texas and Alabama, but not Arkansas and Tennessee, to
be penalized by the federal government. Our system of government is not premised on some
states having greater sovereignty than others”
Blum concluded, “The America that elected and reelected Barack Obama as its first African
American president is far different than when the Voting Rights Act was first enacted in 1965.
Congress unwisely reauthorized a bill that is stuck in a Jim Crow-era time warp. It is
unconstitutional.”
Attorneys representing Shelby County, Alabama are:
Frank C. Ellis, Jr. Bert Rein
County Attorney William Consovoy
Shelby County, Alabama Thomas McCarthy
Wallace Ellis Fowler & Head Wiley Rein LLP
111 North Main Street 1776 K Street NW
Columbiana, AL 35051 Washington, DC 20006
(205) 669-6783 (202) 719-7000