Supreme Court Narrows Voting Rights Act

The Supreme Court avoided ruling today on the constitutionality of the 1965 Voting Rights Act but narrowed the law by allowing more jurisdictions to change their election procedures and district lines without federal approval.

The court said in an 8-to-1 ruling that there was no need at the moment to decide whether a central part of the act, Section 5, was still constitutional in view of progress in civil rights in the South in recent decades. The law requires that some states and many local governments with a history of voter discrimination get clearance from the Justice Department before changing their voting procedures.

"Whether conditions continue to justify such legislation is a difficult constitutional question we do not answer today," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court.

While sidestepping questions of the act's constitutionality, the court ruled in favor of a small Texas governing authority and allowed it to seek an exemption from advance approval requirements. The court's decision opens the door for more cases in which the 16 states covered under the law could seek exemption from federal approval.

Justice Clarence Thomas, the lone dissenter, said that he would have held Section 5 unconstitutional.

"The violence, intimidation and subterfuge that led Congress to pass Section 5 and this court to uphold it no longer remains," Thomas said.

Opponents of the act argue that the law is unconstitutional because it allows the federal government to intervene in local decisions about elections.