In-depth coverage of voter suppression efforts nationwide, in
partnership with Colorlines.com. The Voting Rights Act has been
a tool for the federal government to protect minority voters.
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke.) History will repeat itself in the
chambers of the Supreme Court this week. The very state where
the fight for voting rights reached its critical peak nearly 50
years ago is once again at the center of the dispute over
democracy in America. But oddly, the political and legal odds
may now be tilting away from civil rights and back toward an era
in which the federal government had limited power to protect
voters of color in the South from the machinations of local
leaders. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Wednesday from
an Alabama county that is challenging the constitutionality of
Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. That section protects voters
of color in sixteen states (some fully covered, some partially),
many of which have long brutal histories of denying black
Americans their voting rights.