Perspectives: Progress Made and the Significant Work That Lies Ahead: In perhaps the most important voting rights case in a generation, the Supreme Court issued a ruling this past June22 that has tremendous implications for African-American and other minority voters. The case, Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder, threatened to strike down a core provision of the Voting Rights Act. The provision at issue—the Section 5 preclearance provision—serves as a roadblock that prevents certain states and jurisdictions with long track records of discrimination from implementing discriminatory laws. The law operates by requiring these jurisdictions obtain federal review of their voting changes before they can go into effect.
While this case was brought with the precise objective of gutting the core Section 5 preclearance provision, the Court rejected the constitutional challenge to the law, leaving the Act in place to protect the rights of minority voters.
