{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://cohen.house.gov/press-release/congressman-cohen-blasts-gop%E2%80%99s-district-%E2%80%9Cpacking%E2%80%9D-efforts-rob-african-americans-voting", "Congressman Cohen Blasts GOPs District Packing Efforts That Rob African-Americans of Voting Power", "2014-10-22", "2014", "2014-10", "Democrat", "House", "TN", "Steve Cohen", "C001068", "cohen.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Top 5 congressional districts with the most African-Americans have been gerrymandered by conservative Deep South state legislatures \n[MEMPHIS, TN] \u2013 In a letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder today, Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) sought to shed light on the redistricting practice known as \u201cpacking\u201d that is increasingly used by many conservative-led state legislatures in the South to minimize the influence held by minority communities, specifically African-American communities. Earlier this month, a federal court actually declared one of these district\u2019s newly-drawn boundaries unconstitutional, holding that race was a primary factor in the redrawing of Virginia\u2019s Third Congressional District.\n\u201cAll Americans hold dear the sacred, constitutionally-protected right to vote and we too often take for granted the principle of \u2018one person, one vote,\u2019\u201d said Congressman Cohen. \u201cWhile it may be done under the pretext of protecting minorities or ensuring they are represented, recent \u2018packing\u2019 efforts actually have the opposite result, materially reducing the impact and influence of African-Americans in our democracy. It is no coincidence that the five congressional districts with the most African-Americans are all in the Deep South\u2014and it demonstrates that there is much work to be done to truly emerge from the shadows of slavery and Jim Crow.\u201d\nCongressman Cohen is the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, which has jurisdiction over issues relating to voting rights. Today\u2019s letter from Congressman Cohen to Attorney General Holder asked that the Department of Justice examine district packing efforts as part of its work to cement the voting rights of all Americans. As The Nation magazine\u2019s Ari Berman pointed out in his February 2012 report entitled \u201cHow the GOP Is Resegregating the South,\u201d packing districts is a crucial part of Republican efforts to enhance Republican power throughout the South at the expense of minority voters and their voting rights.\u00a0 Prominent Republican election lawyer Ben Ginsburg even dubbed this strategy with the vulgar term, \u201cProject Ratf***\u201d.\nThis is the latest of the Congressman\u2019s efforts to ensure that voting rights are protected throughout the United States. In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down several critical protections of the Voting Rights Act but left the door open for Congress to restore those protections, the Congressman has strongly and repeatedly called on House leadership to allow a vote to do just that. Congressman Cohen is a cosponsor of the Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2014, which would address the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling and restore the full protections originally included by the authors of the Voting Rights Act.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://cohen.house.gov/press-release/congressman-cohen-blasts-gop%E2%80%99s-district-%E2%80%9Cpacking%E2%80%9D-efforts-rob-african-americans-voting"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7508329581469297, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}