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18 

SHELBY COUNTY v. HOLDER 

Opinion of the Court 

west  Austin,  557  U. S.,  at  204.    As  we  explained,  a  stat-
ute’s  “current  burdens”  must  be  justified  by  “current
needs,”  and  any  “disparate  geographic  coverage”  must  be
“sufficiently related to the problem that it targets.”  Id., at 
203.  The  coverage  formula  met  that  test  in  1965,  but  no
longer does so.

Coverage today is based on decades-old data and eradi-
cated practices.  The formula captures States by reference
to literacy tests and low voter registration and turnout in
the  1960s  and  early  1970s.    But  such  tests  have  been 
banned  nationwide  for  over  40  years.    §6,  84  Stat.  315; 
§102,  89  Stat.  400.    And  voter  registration  and  turnout 
numbers in the covered States have risen dramatically in 
the  years  since.  H. R.  Rep.  No.  109–478,  at  12.    Racial 
disparity in those numbers was compelling evidence justi-
fying  the  preclearance  remedy  and  the  coverage  formula.
See, e.g., Katzenbach, supra, at 313, 329–330.  There is no 
longer such a disparity.

In  1965,  the  States  could  be  divided  into  two  groups:
those  with  a  recent  history  of  voting  tests  and  low  voter
registration and turnout, and those without those charac-
teristics.  Congress  based  its  coverage  formula  on  that
distinction.  Today  the  Nation  is  no  longer  divided  along 
those lines, yet the Voting Rights Act continues to treat it
as if it were. 

B 

The  Government’s  defense  of  the  formula  is  limited. 
First,  the  Government  contends  that  the  formula  is  “re-
verse-engineered”:  Congress  identified  the  jurisdictions  to
be  covered  and  then  came  up  with  criteria  to  describe 
them.  Brief  for  Federal  Respondent  48–49.  Under  that 
reasoning,  there  need  not  be  any  logical  relationship  be-
tween  the  criteria  in  the  formula  and  the  reason  for 
coverage; all that is necessary is that the formula happen 
to capture the jurisdictions Congress wanted to single out.