Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/12pdf/12-96_6k47.pdf
Page Number: 5.0

Cite as:  570 U. S. ____ (2013) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington,  D. C.  20543,  of  any  typographical  or  other  formal  errors,  in  order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 12–96 
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SHELBY COUNTY, ALABAMA, PETITIONER v. ERIC 
H. HOLDER, JR., ATTORNEY GENERAL, ET AL. 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 

APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
 

[June 25, 2013] 

CHIEF  JUSTICE  ROBERTS  delivered  the  opinion  of  the

Court. 

The  Voting  Rights  Act  of  1965  employed  extraordinary
measures to address an extraordinary problem.  Section 5 
of  the  Act  required  States  to  obtain  federal  permission
before enacting any law related to voting—a drastic depar-
ture from basic principles of federalism.  And §4 of the Act
applied that requirement only to some States—an equally 
dramatic  departure  from  the  principle  that  all  States 
enjoy  equal  sovereignty.  This  was  strong  medicine,  but 
Congress determined it was needed to address entrenched
racial  discrimination  in  voting,  “an  insidious  and  perva-
sive  evil  which  had  been  perpetuated  in  certain  parts  of
our  country  through  unremitting  and  ingenious  defiance 
of  the  Constitution.”  South  Carolina  v.  Katzenbach, 
383  U. S.  301,  309  (1966).    As  we  explained  in  upholding 
the  law,  “exceptional  conditions  can  justify  legislative
measures not otherwise appropriate.”  Id., at 334.  Reflect-
ing  the  unprecedented  nature  of  these  measures,  they 
were  scheduled  to  expire  after  five  years.  See  Voting
Rights Act of 1965, §4(a), 79 Stat. 438.