Shelby County v. Holder
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Shelby County v. Holder, legal case, decided on June 25, 2013, in which the U.S. Supreme Court declared (5–4) unconstitutional Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965, which set forth a formula for determining which jurisdictions were required (under Section 5 of the act) to seek federal approval of any proposed change to their electoral laws or procedures (“preclearance”). The formula identified as “covered jurisdictions” any state or political subdivision of a state that as of November 1964 imposed tests (such as literacy tests) or other devices as a condition of registration or of voting and was characterized by voter registration or voter turnout below 50 percent of the voting-age population. Although Sections 4 and 5 of the VRA were originally scheduled to expire after five years, they and other provisions of the act were renewed several times, including in 2006 for a period of 25 years.
In its ruling, the court’s majority noted that the coverage formula had been justified in 1965 by the fact that discriminatory voting practices and low voter registration and turnout were then pervasive in the jurisidictions it singled out, including nine mostly Southern states. Since that time, however, such problems had been almost completely eradicated, in large measure because of enforcement of the VRA itself. In light of current conditions, the majority concluded, the coverage formula represented an unwarranted intrusion by the federal government on the covered states’ power under the Tenth Amendment to regulate elections, as well as a violation of the “fundamental principle of equal sovereignty” among the states, which the court had recognized in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. One v. Holder (2009). Notably, the court did not find fault with the VRA’s Section 5 (which now became unenforceable) or with the notion of preclearance itself.
The court’s opinion was written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and joined by Justices Samuel A. Alito, Anthony M. Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas. Thomas also wrote a concurring opinion. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor.