On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law with Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and other civil rights leaders in attendance. The Act outlawed the voting practices that had been responsible for the disenfranchisement of black people in the U.S. in general, and the South in particular, since the end of Reconstruction in 1877. Section 4(b) of the Act requires that states with a history of voter discrimination needed to submit to federal review any policies or changes affecting voting without first getting clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice. The federal judicial review is known as "preclearance."
Any state where less than 50 percent of the population was registered to vote in 1964 required preclearance. Under this definition, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, parts of California, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, and South Dakota are obliged to submit to preclearance by the U.S. Department of Justice. At the end of a redistricting process, for example, the covered state must submit its maps to the DOJ and demonstrate "that the proposed voting change does not deny or abridge the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group," Additionally, the proposed boundaries may not have a retrogressive effect on the ability of minority groups to elect "their preferred candidates of choice."
Congress has renewed and amended the Voting Rights Act four times since 1965, most recently in 2006, when President George W. Bush signed into law a 25-year extension of the act.
On June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court struck down Section 4(b) of the Act, with its formula for requiring preclearance, as unconstitutional based on current conditions. The court stated that preclearance is no longer necessary. Preclearance itself was not struck down, but it currently has no effect unless Congress passes a new formula. Here is the text of Shelby County v. Holder
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