Voting Rights Act of 1965

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Long title	An Act to enforce the fifteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)	VRA
Nicknames	Voting Rights Act
Enacted by	the 89th United States Congress
Effective	August 6, 1965
Citations
Public law	Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 89–110
Statutes at Large	79 Stat. 437
Codification
Titles amended	Title 52—Voting and Elections
U.S.C. sections created	52 U.S.C. § 10101 52 U.S.C. §§ 10301–10314 52 U.S.C. §§ 10501–10508 52 U.S.C. §§ 10701–10702
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 1564 by Mike Mansfield (D–MT) on March 17, 1965 Committee consideration by Senate Judiciary Passed the Senate on May 26, 1965 (77–19) Passed the House with amendment on July 9, 1965 (333–85) Reported by the joint conference committee on July 29, 1965; agreed to by the House on August 3, 1965 (328–74) and by the Senate on August 4, 1965 (79–18) Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965
Major amendments
Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970[1] Voting Rights Act of 1965, Amendments of 1975[2] Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1982[3] Voting Rights Language Assistance Act of 1992[4] Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, César E. Chávez, Barbara C. Jordan, William C. Velásquez, and Dr. Hector P. Garcia Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006[5][6]
United States Supreme Court cases
List South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U.S. 301 (1966) Katzenbach v. Morgan, 384 U.S. 641 (1966) Cardona v. Power, 384 U.S. 672 (1966) Allen v. State Board of Elections, 393 U.S. 544 (1969) Gaston County v. United States, 395 U.S. 285 (1969) Oregon v. Mitchell, 400 U.S. 112 (1970) City of Richmond v. United States, 422 U.S. 358 (1975) East Carroll Parish Sch. Bd. v. Marshall, 424 U.S. 636 (1976) Beer v. United States, 425 U.S. 130 (1976) United Jewish Organizations v. Carey, 430 U.S. 144 (1977) Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55 (1980) City of Rome v. United States, 446 U.S. 156 (1980) Escambia County v. McMillan, 466 U.S. 48 (1984) Mississippi Republican Executive Committee v. Brooks, 469 U.S. 1002 (1984) Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U.S. 30 (1986) Clark v. Roemer, 500 U.S. 646 (1991) Chisom v. Roemer, 501 U.S. 380 (1991) Houston Lawyers' Association v. Attorney General of Texas, 501 U.S. 419 (1991) Presley v. Etowah County Comm'n, 502 U.S. 491 (1992) Growe v. Emison, 507 U.S. 25 (1993) Voinovich v. Quilter, 507 U.S. 146 (1993) Shaw v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630 (1993) Holder v. Hall, 512 U.S. 874 (1994) Johnson v. De Grandy, 512 U.S. 997 (1994) Miller v. Johnson, 515 U.S. 900 (1995) Morse v. Republican Party of Virginia, 517 U.S. 186 (1996) Shaw v. Hunt, 517 U.S. 899 (1996) Bush v. Vera, 517 U.S. 952 (1996) Lopez v. Monterey County, 519 U.S. 9 (1996) Young v. Fordice, 520 U.S. 273 (1997) Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board, 520 U.S. 471 (1997) Abrams v. Johnson, 521 U.S. 74 (1997) Foreman v. Dallas County, 521 U.S. 979 (1997) City of Monroe v. United States, 522 U.S. 34 (1997) Texas v. United States, 523 U.S. 296 (1998) Lopez v. Monterey County, 525 U.S. 266 (1999) Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board, 528 U.S. 320 (2000) Branch v. Smith, 538 U.S. 254 (2003) Georgia v. Ashcroft, 539 U.S. 461 (2003) League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry, 548 U.S. 399 (2006) Riley v. Kennedy, 553 U.S. 406 (2008) Bartlett v. Strickland, 556 U.S. 1 (2009) Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder, 557 U.S. 193 (2009) Perry v. Perez, 565 U.S. 388 (2012) Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013) Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama, No. 13-895, 575 U.S. ___ (2015) Bethune-Hill v. Virginia State Bd. of Elections, No. 15-680, 580 U.S. ___ (2017) Cooper v. Harris, No. 15-1262, 581 U.S. ___ (2017) North Carolina v. Covington, No. 16-1023, 581 U.S. ___ (2017) Abbott v. Perez, No. 17-586, 585 U.S. ___ (2018) North Carolina v. Covington, No. 17-1364, 585 U.S. ___ (2018) Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, No. 19-1257, 594 U.S. ___ (2021) Allen v. Milligan, No. 21-1086, 599 U.S. ___ (2023)

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.^[7][8] It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement on August 6, 1965, and Congress later amended the Act five times to expand its protections.^[7] Designed to enforce the voting rights protected by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Act sought to secure the right to vote for racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Act is considered to be the most effective piece of federal civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country.^[9] The National Archives and Records Administration stated: "The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was the most significant statutory change in the relationship between the federal and state governments in the area of voting since the Reconstruction period following the Civil War".^[10]

The act contains numerous provisions that regulate elections. The act's "general provisions" provide nationwide protections for voting rights. Section 2 is a general provision that prohibits state and local government from imposing any voting rule that "results in the denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen to vote on account of race or color" or membership in a language minority group.^[11] Other general provisions specifically outlaw literacy tests and similar devices that were historically used to disenfranchise racial minorities. The act also contains "special provisions" that apply to only certain jurisdictions. A core special provision is the Section 5 preclearance requirement, which prohibited certain jurisdictions from implementing any change affecting voting without first receiving confirmation from the U.S. attorney general or the U.S. District Court for D.C. that the change does not discriminate against protected minorities.^[12] Another special provision requires jurisdictions containing significant language minority populations to provide bilingual ballots and other election materials.

Section 5 and most other special provisions applied to jurisdictions encompassed by the "coverage formula" prescribed in Section 4(b). The coverage formula was originally designed to encompass jurisdictions that engaged in egregious voting discrimination in 1965, and Congress updated the formula in 1970 and 1975. In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the coverage formula as unconstitutional, reasoning that it was obsolete.^[13] The court did not strike down Section 5, but without a coverage formula, Section 5 is unenforceable.^[14] The jurisdictions which had previously been covered by the coverage formula massively increased the rate of voter registration purges after the Shelby decision.^[15]

In 2021, the Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee Supreme Court ruling reinterpreted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, substantially weakening it.^[16][11] The ruling interpreted the "totality of circumstances" language of Section 2 to mean that it does not generally prohibit voting rules that have disparate impact on the groups that it sought to protect, including a rule blocked under Section 5 before the Court inactivated that section in Shelby County v. Holder.^[16][11] In particular, the ruling held that fears of election fraud could justify such rules, even without evidence that any such fraud had occurred in the past or that the new rule would make elections safer.^[11]

Research shows that the Act had successfully and massively increased voter turnout and voter registrations, in particular among black people.^{[17][18][19][20]} The Act has also been linked to concrete outcomes, such as greater public goods provision (such as public education) for areas with higher black population shares, more members of Congress who vote for civil rights-related legislation, and greater Black representation in local offices.^[21][22][23]