In Shelby vs. Holden, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress used outdated facts in continuing to force nine states, mainly in the South, to obtain federal approval for preclearance of voting rule changes which mainly affected blacks and other minorities which dismantled a key provision of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Since this ruling, there’s been an increase in voter suppression legislation through state legislature, including new restrictive legislation, discriminatory voter roll purges, long lines and closed polling places, voter intimidation and misinformation, and efforts to overthrow elections through litigation. Most recently, the U.S. Supreme Court made it more difficult to challenge state redistricting plans as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. The court upheld a redistricting map drawn by the South Carolina legislature, a map that a lower court found had resulted in “the bleaching of African American voters” from a district.

House of Representative (H.R.14) - John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2023 and Senate (S.4) - John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2024 are critical legislation to establish new criteria for preclearance for states that have a history of voter discriminatory practices in response to the Supreme Court decision over 10 years ago. The Act, which harkens back to the original tenets of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, will serve to overcome legal barriers once again at the local and state level which stand in the way of citizens, but particularly African Americans and other minority citizens, from exercising their choice, their voice, and their right to vote.