voting rights act gutted

  • Watch: Attorney General Loretta Lynch Discusses Federal Election Monitors for 2016 Race

    In a climate where Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has asked his supporters to “monitor” elections and has repeatedly called the system “rigged,” U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch this week released a video discussing this year’s elections and how the federal government will play a part in monitoring them. Considering that this is the first presidential contest…

  • 3 Years Later, the Ghosts of Shelby Still Haunt Us

    Three years ago, the Supreme Court handed down a crushing ruling in the landmark case Shelby v. Holder (pdf). For reasons still mostly unclear to me (Chief Justice John Roberts partially opined that key provisions of the Voting Rights Act were “extraordinary measures” no longer needed because America’s legacy on race “had changed”), Section 5 of the…