Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-1257_g204.pdf
Page Number: 9

Cite as:  594 U. S. ____ (2021) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

See,  e.g.,  Guinn  v.  United  States,  238  U. S.  347,  360–365 
(1915)  (grandfather  clause);  Myers  v.  Anderson,  238  U. S. 
368, 379–380 (1915) (same); Lane v. Wilson, 307 U. S. 268, 
275–277 (1939) (registration scheme predicated on grand-
father clause); Smith v. Allwright, 321 U. S. 649, 659–666 
(1944)  (white  primaries);  Schnell  v.  Davis,  336  U. S.  933 
(1949)  (per  curiam),  affirming  81  F. Supp.  872  (SD  Ala. 
1949) (test of constitutional knowledge); Gomillion v. Light-
foot, 364 U. S. 339, 347 (1960) (racial gerrymander).  But as 
late as the mid-1960s, black registration and voting rates 
in some States were appallingly low.  See South Carolina v. 
Katzenbach, 383 U. S. 301, 313 (1966). 
  Invoking  the  power  conferred  by  §2  of  the  Fifteenth 
Amendment, see 383 U. S., at 308; City of Rome v. United 
States, 446 U. S. 156, 173 (1980), Congress enacted the Vot-
ing Rights Act (VRA) to address this entrenched problem.  
The Act and its amendments in the 1970s specifically for-
bade some of the practices that had been used to suppress 
black voting.  See §§4(a), (c), 79 Stat. 438–439; §6, 84 Stat. 
315; §102, 89 Stat. 400, as amended, 52 U. S. C. §§10303(a), 
(c), 10501 (prohibiting the denial of the right to vote in any 
election for failure to pass a test demonstrating literacy, ed-
ucational achievement or knowledge of any particular sub-
ject, or good moral character); see also §10, 79 Stat. 442, as 
amended,  52  U. S. C.  §10306  (declaring  poll  taxes  unlaw-
ful); §11, 79 Stat. 443, as amended, 52 U. S. C. §10307 (pro-
hibiting  intimidation  and  the  refusal  to  allow  or  count 
votes).  Sections 4 and 5 of the VRA imposed special require-
ments  for  States  and subdivisions where  violations of  the 
right to vote had been severe.  And §2 addressed the denial 
or abridgment of the right to vote in any part of the country. 
  As originally enacted, §2 closely tracked the language of 
the Amendment it was adopted to enforce.  Section 2 stated 
simply that “[n]o voting qualification or prerequisite to vot-
ing, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or 
applied  by  any  State  or  political  subdivision  to  deny  or