June 25, 2013. The supreme court ruled 5-4 that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is no longer relevant.
The Voting Rights Act was passed at the height of the civil rights movement and was designed to combat literacy tests, inaccessible polling places and other barriers to voting.
The law had applied to nine states. Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia, and to counties and municipalities in other states, including Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx.
The decision will have immediate consequences. Texas announced shortly after the decision that a voter identification law would go into effect immediately, and that redistricting maps there would no longer need federal approval.
Don't let voter's rights be taken away.