By Robert Sulzer

June 25,2013

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed almost fifty years of progress in civil rights with a very disappointing ruling on the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  By a 5-4 ruling, it struck down Section 4 of the landmark Voting Rights Act . Section 4 determines which areas of the United States cannot make changes to their voting laws unless cleared by the federal government or by a federal court.  The Voting Rights Act has been used to block a voter ID law in Texas and to delay the implementation of another such law in North Carolina. Due to this Supreme Court decision, both of those states are no longer subject to the pre clearance requirement and can move forward to implement these laws intended suppress the vote.