Supreme Court strikes down key part of Voting Rights Act

WASHINGTON – A bitterly divided Supreme Court drove a stake through the heart of the landmark Voting Rights Act Tuesday, striking down a coverage formula that Congress has used to monitor states with a history of discrimination.Declaring that “our country has changed in the past 50 years,” Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s four other conservatives said the 1965 law cannot be enforced unless Congress updates it to account for a half-century of civil rights advances.The court’s 5-4 ruling in the case from Alabama frees states and municipalities with a history of racial discrimination from having to clear changes in voting procedures with the federal government. That restriction has applied to nine states and parts of six others, mostly in the South. SUPREME COURT: 1% Cherokee girl goes to adoptive parents”Coverage today is based on decades-old data and eradicated practices,” Roberts said. “Our country has changed, and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions,” he wrote.The decision came in the second of two major cases involving race to come before the high court this term. In the other, decided Monday, the… Read full this story

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