The Demise of Section 5? - John Fund - National Review Online

 

As Rick Pildes, an election-law expert at New York University’s School of Law, noted on Election Law Blog: “The House did not even consider evidence comparing race and voting issues in the covered and non-covered jurisdictions; it did not seem to consider these comparisons necessary or relevant. The Senate Judiciary Committee was certainly told in 2006 that the failure to update the Act would put it in constitutional jeopardy . . . [but] it was politically easier for Congress to simply reaffirm the status quo, rather than confront the difficult policy and political questions posed by making judgments about where problems of race and voting rights were most acute today (are Ohio and Pennsylvania similar today to Virginia and North Carolina?).”

The Demise of Section 5? - John Fund - National Review Online