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2 

SHELBY COUNTY v. HOLDER 

Opinion of the Court 

Nearly  50  years  later,  they  are  still  in  effect;  indeed, 
they have been made more stringent, and are now sched-
uled to last until 2031.  There is no denying, however, that
the  conditions  that  originally  justified  these  measures  no
longer characterize voting in the covered jurisdictions.  By
2009,  “the  racial  gap  in  voter  registration  and  turnout
[was]  lower  in  the  States  originally  covered  by  §5  than  it 
[was] nationwide.”  Northwest Austin Municipal Util. Dist. 
No.  One  v.  Holder,  557  U. S.  193,  203–204  (2009).    Since 
that  time,  Census  Bureau  data  indicate  that  African-
American  voter  turnout  has  come  to  exceed  white  voter 
turnout  in  five  of  the  six  States  originally  covered  by  §5,
with  a  gap  in  the  sixth  State  of  less  than  one  half  of  one 
percent.  See  Dept.  of  Commerce,  Census  Bureau,  Re-
ported  Voting  and  Registration,  by  Sex,  Race  and  His-
panic Origin, for States (Nov. 2012) (Table 4b). 

At  the  same  time,  voting  discrimination  still  exists;  no
one  doubts  that.    The  question  is  whether  the  Act’s  ex-
traordinary measures, including its disparate treatment of
the States, continue to satisfy constitutional requirements. 
As  we  put  it  a  short  time  ago,  “the  Act  imposes  current
burdens  and  must  be  justified  by  current  needs.”    North-
west Austin, 557 U. S., at 203. 

I 

A 

The  Fifteenth  Amendment  was  ratified  in  1870,  in  the 
wake  of  the  Civil  War.  It  provides  that  “[t]he  right  of
citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or 
abridged by the United States or by any State on account 
of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude,”  and  it
gives Congress the “power to enforce this article by appro-
priate legislation.” 

“The  first  century  of  congressional  enforcement  of  the
Amendment,  however,  can  only  be  regarded  as  a  failure.” 
Id.,  at  197.    In  the  1890s,  Alabama,  Georgia,  Louisiana,