Rule for reply -Respond to someone else’s posts; this is a discussion! (50 words minimum per comment) -If you agree with a post, start out by stating your agreement and BUILD ON IT. If you disagree with a post, develop your post in context of your disagreement. Classmate post 1 The Voting Rights Act (VRA) was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965. Its purpose was to help overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that inhibited African Americans and others from from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment. The act did help to greatly increase voting turnouts in minority groups and it is considered by many to be one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in the history of the US (Wilson 182). I feel that it was unconstitutional. The Tenth Amendment of the Constitution guarantees equal sovereignty to all states, but Section 4 b of the VRAspecifies that certain regions and states are subject to pre-clearance when changing voting regulations, while others are not. In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled Section 4 b of the VRA unconstitutional, allowing nine formerly restrictedstates to change their election laws without federal preapproval. However, the reasons stated for the Court’s decision were that the formula used for deciding which states should be subject to pre-approval was outdated and that regular pre-approval may no longer be necessary. The court stated that Congress was free to impose federal oversight in states where they felt that voting rights were in danger. Former President Obama,Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and others stated their strong disapproval of the decision, citing the continued need for the legislation, especially to stop racial gerrymandering and laws that require at-large voting in minority areas (Liptak). Classmate post 2 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted in response to the Civil Rights Movement. Prior to this time, just 25 years before only 3% of the eligible African-American voters in the South were registered and regularly voted. The percentage was so low because of a continuous nefarious desire to suppress African-Americans from voting since they were granted the right to vote when the fifteenth Amendment was passed. In the 1940s, Jim Crow laws were created to further suppress African-American voters. Laws that required passing a literacy test, or paying a poll tax were all designed in a way to impede African-American voters (History of Voting Rights Act ACLU). As a result of the VRA states that had previously passed laws detrimental to African-American voters had to get approval to pass new laws that have something to do with voting. In 2013 the Supreme Court ruled Section 4 of the VRA unconstitutional, in that the coverage formula used to determine which states needed approval before changing voting laws. Chief Justice Roberts argued that “the formulas that govern singling out one state from another for different treatment, which once ‘made sense,’ have lost their relevance, and ‘nearly 50 years later, things have changed dramatically (Schwartz).” He also reasoned that voting laws are part of state's powers and not the federal government, thus requiring states to get approval from the federal government was no longer necessary. While I agree that minorities no longer face such clear obstructions of voting via literacy tests or poll taxes, I believe that the VRA is a vital part of ensuring minorities voting rights are not infringed upon. With the removal of section 4 of the VRA and consequently invalidating section 5, states that previously were required to get federal approval to change voting laws are now able to pass them without the extra federal inspection. As expected this has caused a rise in new voting laws, such as in Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama. These 3 states previously were part of the states that required additional federal approval. Since the Supreme Court’s decision said 3 states have passed restrictive Voter ID laws (Tigas et al). Voter ID laws required voters to have a valid ID such as a driver's license to vote, something which a significant amount of minority voters lack. As in Alabama where, “after the Shelby County decision, Alabama implemented a strict voter ID law requiring a driver’s license or similar to vote. Then, in 2015, Alabama shut down driver’s license offices in 31 counties – including every county in which African Americans make up 75% or more of registered voters (Voter Suppression Laws ACLU).” These new voting requirements are just the newer more subtle Jim Crow laws of the 1940s laws, all designed with the sole purpose of suppressing minority voters. 
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