http://www.thenation.com/blog/183561/supreme-court-eviscerates-voting-rights-act-texas-voter-id-decision
Four major voting rights cases have come before the Supreme Court in the past month—from Ohio, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Texas—and in three instances the court has ruled to restrict voting rights.
The Roberts Court has set a trap for voters. First it paralyzed Section 5 of the VRA, taking away the federal government's most potent weapon for stopping voting discrimination. Instead, it urged the Justice Department and civil rights groups to challenge discriminatory voting changes under Section 2 of the VRA, even though Justice Kennedy admitted in 2009 that "Section 2 cases are very expensive. They are very long. They are very inefficient." Then, when a slew of lawsuits are filed under Section 2, the Supreme Court largely sides with those restricting voting rights. It seems like the Court's conservative majority is planning to eviscerate every important part of the VRA.
The recent decisions show that Section 2 of the VRA is no replacement for Section 5. Earlier this year, members of Congress introduced a legislative fix for the VRA to resurrect Section 5 in states with five voting rights violations in the past fifteen years. One of the states covered by the new law would be Texas. thenation.com/blog
