Supreme Court Ruling Strikes Key Provisions of the Voting Rights Act
This law covers many pages. But the heart of the act is plain. Wherever, by clear and objective standards, states and counties are using regulations, or laws, or tests to deny the right to vote, then they will be struck down. If it is clear that State officials still intend to discriminate, then Federal examiners will be sent in to register all eligible voters. When the prospect of discrimination is gone, the examiners will be immediately withdrawn.
And, under this act, if any county anywhere in this Nation does not want Federal intervention it need only open its polling places to all of its people.
~ President Lyndon Johnson, Remarks on the Signing of the Voting Rights Act (Aug, 1965)
In a 5-4 vote, the United States Supreme Court today issued a ruling that struck down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, landmark legislation prohibiting race-based discriminatory voting practices by states, subject to federal government oversight and enforcement.
As we discuss in our junior U.S. history classes, the Voting Rights Act ended nearly a century-long-record of voter suppression tactics such as poll taxes and literacy tests largely aimed at African Americans. Specifically, the Act prohibits states from imposing any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or
