ST. LOUIS -- The ACLU of Missouri and the ACLU Voting Rights Project have filed an emergency motion today to stop the Ferguson-Florissant School District from conducting its school board election under a system that a federal court found violates the Voting Rights Act.
“The court found that the Ferguson-Florissant School Board’s election system violates the federal Voting Rights Act, so allowing an election to go forward in April without a remedy would be illegal,” said ACLU of Missouri Legal Director Tony Rothert. “Entering this stay is incorrect and we are seeking a review of this decision.”
Today, the ACLU filed an emergency motion after the district court judge issued a stay of the order moving the district to a cumulative voting system.
ACLU lawyers filed a lawsuit in 2014 on behalf of the Ferguson-Florissant community and the Missouri NAACP that the district’s school district’s electoral system discriminates against African-American residents.
In November, a federal judge ruled in favor of a cumulative voting system to remedy the Voting Rights Act violation in the Ferguson-Florissant School District’s process for electing school board members. The Ferguson-Florissant School District did not offer any proposed remedies.
Read the motion: http://bit.ly/2il45wh
About the ACLU of Missouri: The ACLU of Missouri preserves and expands the constitutional rights and civil liberties of all Missourians as guaranteed in the Missouri and U.S. Constitutions, with a focus on the Bill of Rights, the first ten Amendments.
About the ACLU Voting Rights Project: Established in 1965, the ACLU Voting Rights Project has worked to protect the gains in political participation won by racial and language minorities since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). And since its inception, the Voting Rights Project has litigated over 300 voting rights cases, and has aggressively and successfully challenged efforts that dilute minority voting strength or obstruct the ability of minority communities to elect candidates of their choice.