Balls and Strikes

"In his opinion hobbling preclearance, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the 15th Amendment, which protects racial minorities' right to vote, 'is not designed to punish for the past; its purpose is to ensure a better future.' But Section 5 did not 'punish for the past'; it used the past to determine where racial voter suppression was most likely to occur in the future. The catastrophic consequences of Shelby County suggest Section 5's forecasts were accurate. And thanks to Roberts' handiwork, the residents of Randolph County are confronting a future in which their right to vote has been quietly nullified."

Mark Joseph Stern at Slate writes that "[f]ive years later, the consequences of the Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act are painfully clear."