Voting Rights Act

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a federal law that prohibits racial discrimination in voting, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965. It was designed to enforce the voting rights protected by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the US Constitution and to secure the right to vote for racial minorities. The act contains numerous provisions that regulate elections, including Section 2, which prohibits voting rules that result in the denial or abridgement of the right to vote on account of race or color. The act also contains special provisions, such as Section 5, which prohibited certain jurisdictions from implementing voting changes without federal approval. However, in 2013, the US Supreme Court struck down the coverage formula that applied to certain jurisdictions, rendering Section 5 unenforceable. In 2021, the Supreme Court also substantially weakened Section 2 of the act, making it more difficult to challenge voting rules that have a disparate impact on protected groups.learn more on wikipedia