Shelby County v. Holder guts Section 4(b) preclearance requirements

🤠Texas implemented voter ID within 2 hours of Shelby. Attorney General Greg Abbott tweeted immediately. The law took effect that day, June 25, 2013. Federal courts had blocked it as discriminatory. Shelby eliminated that barrier. An estimated 600,000 registered voters lacked required IDs. Democracy changed in an afternoon.

🎸Mississippi and 🏈Alabama followed within days. Mississippi announced June 25. Alabama announced June 28. States had discriminatory laws ready. They waited for federal oversight to end. Preparation was coordinated. Implementation was immediate. Voting rights vanished overnight.

Nearly 1,000 polling places closed in Black counties. The Leadership Conference documented 1,688 total closures. Most happened in predominantly African-American areas. Average travel distance increased 2-3 miles. Transportation barriers reduce turnout significantly. Rural Black voters faced the worst impacts. Democracy became geographically unequal.

More voting restrictions passed since 2013 than the previous 50 years. Twenty-nine states enacted 94 restrictive laws. Section 5 had blocked 3,000 discriminatory changes before Shelby. The preclearance deterrent disappeared. States rushed to restrict voting. The floodgates opened completely. Suppression became systematic.

The racial turnout gap expanded dramatically. White and nonwhite voter participation diverged. Brennan Center documented the growing disparity. Restrictions work as intended. Minority voting drops. Republican advantages grow. Demographics get neutralized through law.

Early voting faced systematic reduction. Sunday voting popular with Black churches ended. Souls to the Polls programs collapsed. Registration drives faced new restrictions. Student voting got targeted. Provisional ballot rules tightened. Death by a thousand cuts.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote discrimination was historical. He declared the South had changed. Preclearance was outdated, he argued. Within hours, states proved him wrong. Discrimination returned immediately. The coverage formula died. So did voting rights protection.