Supreme Court upholds Voting Rights Act Section 5 preclearance in South Carolina v. Katzenbach

The Supreme Court unanimously upholds the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in South Carolina v. Katzenbach, ruling that Congress acted within its constitutional authority under the Fifteenth Amendment when it enacted the preclearance requirement. Chief Justice Earl Warren writes for the Court that Congress had documented a systematic pattern of racial discrimination in voting that justified the law's targeted coverage formula and suspension of literacy tests. The ruling solidifies Section 5 preclearance as a constitutional enforcement tool and rejects Southern states' challenge that the law violated the principle of equal sovereignty among states.