“THIS IS NOT the kind of a question you can leave to Congress,” Justice Antonin Scalia pronounced . The subject was the Voting Rights Act, one of the most successful pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history, and in particular its Section 5. That provision requires nine states and assorted jurisdictions in seven others to win Justice Department approval before changing their voting laws. The burden is on these “covered” jurisdictions, unlike for the rest of the country, to prove that such changes won’t adversely impact the right of African Americans and other minorities to vote. Shelby County, Ala., was in court Wednesday arguing that this pre-clearance...
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