Case Summary

Section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act (“VRA”) required “covered” jurisdictions to obtain approval (“preclearance”) from the U.S. Attorney General or the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before enacting changes to their election laws or procedures by showing that the proposed change “neither has the purpose nor will have the effect” of impairing or interfering with any person’s right to vote on account of their race or minority status. § 4(b) of the VRA defined which jurisdictions were “covered” for § 5 purposes as those which had a voting test in place on November 1, 1964, and less than 50% turnout for the 1964 Presidential Election.

In 2010, Shelby County, Alabama, a covered jurisdiction, filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Attorney General seeking a declaratory judgment that VRA §§ 4(b) and 5 were unconstitutional. Plaintiffs alleged the original circumstances justifying those provisions were no longer present and that their continued use violated the principles of federalism and equal state sovereignty by treating States differently based on now-outdated standards.

  • On June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down § 4(b)’s coverage formula as unconstitutional. Having noted the “serious constitutional questions” raised by § 4(b)’s outdated formula in a 2009 case before it, SCOTUS held that “decades-old data and eradicated practices” could no longer justify the Act’s “extraordinary and unprecedented” features, citing Congress’s repeated failure to update § 4(b)’s coverage formula to reflect “current political conditions.” The Court explained imposed preclearance upon some states and not others based upon their historical, not present, voting conditions violated the States’ constitutional right to regulate elections.

Significance: Voting Rights Act § 4(b), the coverage formula used to determine which jurisdictions were subject to preclearance under § 5, is unconstitutional, and as a result, preclearance under § 5 is no longer required.

Case Library

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia - 1:10-cv-00651

U.S. Supreme Court - Nos. 12-81; 12-96 [570 U.S. 529 (2013)]