Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Voting Rights Act Case

The SupremeCourt recently granted certiorari to a case challenging the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The case (Shelby County v. Holder) was brought by Shelby County, Alabama, which alleged that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority in 2006 when it reauthorized Section 5 for 25 years.

Section 5 requires certain state and local governments (“covered jurisdictions”) with a history of discriminatory voting practices to obtain approval from the Department of Justice or the U.S. District Court for D.C. before implementing any change affecting voting. Specifically, preclearance applies to any attempt to change “any voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting...in any covered jurisdiction.”

In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (D.C.) Circuit rejected Shelby County's challenge. The court affirmed a district court decision that Section 5 remained a “'congruent and proportional' remedy to the 21st century problem of voting discrimination in covered jurisdictions,” and that failing to reauthorize it would leave minority citizens with inadequate remedies against discriminatory voting laws. It noted that, in reauthorizing the act, Congress compiled a 15,000-page record that found numerous contemporary examples of discrimination in the covered jurisdictions, thus showing a continued need for preclearance.

Oral arguments before the Supreme Court are expected in early 2013, with a decision expected by June 2013.