Maher: VRA Doesn’t Require Majority Minority Districts, But Letter of Law ‘for a Perfect World’

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher acknowledged that the language of the Voting Rights Act does not require there to be congressional districts where the majority of the population is nonwhite, but “the letter of the law is written for a perfect world. We don’t live in that perfect world.” And argued that people should “find a new law. That’s why you have a whole wall of books behind you.”

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) said, “Let me just say about the Supreme Court decision here so that people are informed about it, is they struck down this idea, and it is an idea, it’s not written in the statute, an idea that there has to be majority minority districts. That was not in the Voting Rights Act. There’s nowhere in there that says that. It’s been interpreted. It’s become tradition.”

Maher responded, “You’re right about the letter of the law, but you know what, find a new law. That’s why you have a whole wall of books behind you.”

Crenshaw responded, “Exactly. Then write a new law.”

Later, Maher added that “the letter of the law is written for a perfect world. We don’t live in that perfect world.”

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