US court quashes voting law clause

The United States Supreme Court has overturned a key part of a landmark civil rights-era electoral law designed to protect minority voters. By a margin of 5-4, the justices quashed section 4 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. They ruled that an updated formula was needed to decide which jurisdictions’ election laws need monitoring. The law requires all or parts of 15 US states, mostly in the South, to receive federal approval for election changes. The Voting Rights Act was extended for 25 years by Congress in 2006 with broad support. “Congress did not use the record it compiled to shape a coverage formula grounded in current conditions,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the court’s opinion. Supporters of the Voting Rights Act say it is still relevant. “It instead re-enacted a formula based on 40-year-old facts having no logical relationship to the present day.”