By The Huffington Post News Editors
WASHINGTON — If the Obama administration needs a plan to deal with the likely death of a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, it may be able to dust off its blueprint from 2009.
Back then, oral arguments indicated the Supreme Court was taking a skeptical view of the constitutionality of the act’s Section 5, which requires certain jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination to get federal approval of any changes to their voting laws and procedures. Oral arguments in a different case last week also strongly suggested a slim majority of the court believes now may be time to end Section 5.
Civil rights advocates in 2009 had braced for the justices to overturn the law‘s chief component. The vast majority of journalists, too, thought Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder — known as NAMUDNO in the election law community — would be the case that took down Section 5.
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