A Cure Worse than the Disease?
14 Pages Posted: 31 May 2013 Last revised: 19 Nov 2013
Date Written: May 30, 2013
Abstract
The pending challenge to section 5 of the Voting Rights Act insists the statute is no longer necessary. Should the Supreme Court agree, its ruling is likely to reflect the belief that section 5 is not only obsolete but that its requirements do more harm today than the condition it was crafted to address. This short essay examines why the Court might liken section 5 to a destructive treatment and why reliance on that analogy in the pending case threatens to leave the underlying condition unaddressed and Congress without the power to address it.
Keywords: Voting Rights Act, Shelby County
JEL Classification: J70, J71, K1
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation