Voting Rights Act revisited.

Although I mentioned this news in a previous post, I made no comments on it in particular.  The Supreme Court this week argeed to hear a case on the constitutionality of parts of the Voting Rights Act.  As I've already mentioned, the Act enforces, though is not the same as, the Fifteenth Amendment.  Thus, repeal of the Voting Rights Act does not mean the repeal of voting rights.  Nevertheless, given the wave of attempts at voter suppression in the last several years, it is clear that something like the Voting Rights Act must exist.  The plaintiff in the case, Shelby County, Alabama, is in one of the states which must clear changes in voting procedure with the federal government.  When the Act was passed in 1965, states and counties with a record of discriminatory voting practices were subject to "preclearance".  Other states are not.  This, indeed, seems unfair.  But you will notice from the charts below, that the current problem of voter suppression is not limited to the nine states subject to "preclearance".  The Act certainly needs revising, just not in the direction that Shelby County hopes.  The charts below come from the Brennan Center Voting Laws Roundup, which is worth a look.