A PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATION FOR REINSTATING PRECLEARANCE UNDER THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT

By John McCormick-Huhn [PDF]

The Voting Rights Act (VRA) was signed into law nearly sixty years ago. But in 2013, the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder opinion effectively gutted the VRA’s preclearance requirement, which required states with a history of discriminatory voting laws to submit proposed voting law changes for federal approval. The Supreme Court determined that the formula for determining the “covered jurisdictions” subjected to preclearance was outdated and unnecessary in light of “progress” and how the VRA “proved immensely successful at redressing racial discrimination and integrating the voting process.”