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Voting Rights Act marks 61st anniversary

newsAug 6, 2026462,903

Sixty-one years after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law in 1965, advocates say recent court decisions and new judicial nominees have hollowed out its protections. The Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013 invalidated Section 4(b)’s coverage formula and rendered Section 5’s preclearance inoperable, a ruling that former Congressman John Lewis said “put a dagger in the heart” of the VRA. Twelve days after the Supreme Court’s curtailment of the VRA in Louisiana v. Callais, the Trump administration announced six lifetime judicial nominees, including Kasdin Mitchell and Angela Colmenero for federal district judgeships in Texas, a state formerly covered by Section 5. Kasdin Mitchell appeared on Alabama’s 2013 Shelby County brief arguing that “things in the South have, indeed, changed,” while Angela Colmenero’s Senate questionnaire and litigation record show she defended Texas voting measures including work on Veasey v. Abbott and positions minimizing SB 14 and SB 5’s discriminatory effects. Commentators and voting-rights advocates warn these developments worsen the challenge to Black political participation and underscore calls for Congress to restore and strengthen federal voting-rights protections.

Peggy Stuart
@peggystuart.bsky.social

James Talarico: “The first thing we have to do when we win this seat is pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. We have to restore federal voting rights protections. These rights are inherent to people as human beings, the ability to shape your own destiny.”

138245d ago
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