Obama pledges to strengthen Voting Rights Act

David Jackson | USA TODAY

President Obama told civil rights leaders Monday that his administration would work to strengthen the Voting Rights Act in light of a Supreme Court decision striking down a key provision.

After a White House meeting with more than a dozen attorneys, state lawmakers and civil rights activists, Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett tweeted that the administration wants "to ensure every eligible American has the right to vote."

The meeting came a month after the Supreme Court struck down the provision that required the federal government to pre-clear changes to voting systems in states that have a history of racial discrimination, mostly in the South. The Obama administration and other critics of the decision have asked Congress to restore that provision.

Some of Obama's guests noted that the high court struck down only one part of the act, and most of it remains intact.

They also said several states, some emboldened by the court's decision, are moving to suppress voting by minorities through voter ID laws and changing district lines. They said they would push Congress to beef up federal oversight of state voting systems in light of the ruling.

The Supreme Court decision "has opened the floodgates to discrimination at the ballot box and potentially set our nation back 50 years," stated NAACP Chairman of the Board Roslyn Brock, who attended the meeting with Obama.

Al Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network and an MSNBC talk show host, said Obama and aides met with a "broad coalition of civil rights and voting rights" groups. Attorney General Eric Holder and Labor Secretary Tom Perez also attended the session.

Obama and the group discussed both a legal and legislative strategy on voting rights.

Texas State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democrat from San Antonio and chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, noted that a lawsuit against voting changes in Texas is pending, and the Obama administration is joining it.

"There is litigation happening right now," Fischer said.

The White House provided a list of attendees:

• Al Sharpton, president and founder, National Action Network

• Barbara Arnwine, president and executive director, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

• Janet Murguía, president and CEO, National Council of La Raza

• John Echohawk, executive director, Native American Rights Fund

• Laura Murphy, director, Washington Legislative Office, American Civil Liberties Union

• Marc Morial, president and CEO, National Urban League

• Margaret Fung, executive director, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund

• Mee Moua, president and executive director, Asian Americans Advancing Justice

• Roslyn Brock, chairman, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Board of Directors

• Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc

• Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel, The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund

• Wade Henderson, president and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

• Alan Williams, state representative and chair, Florida Conference of Black State Legislators

• Calvin Smyre, state representative and Democratic Caucus chairman emeritus, Georgia House of Representatives

• Kasim Reed, mayor of Atlanta

• Napoleon Bracy, state representative and chair, Alabama Legislative Black Caucus

• Trey Martinez Fischer, Florida state representative and chair, Mexican American Legislative Caucus