Listening to liberal activist and civil rights groups reactions to the Supreme Court decision on the Voting rights Act, you would think that life as we know it had come to an end. Actually, life as we used to know it did come to something of an end. The Supremes didn't overturn the entire VRA, All they said was that it's not 1965, it's 2013 and so the tests in Section 4 of the act, originally written in 1965, have to be updated to reflect today. The tests have to reflect that things are no longer the same. Chief Justice Roberts basically said that we should give ourselves a little credit. The VRA has worked in curing many of the unfair practices that it was enacted for. Congress has to go back and modernize the tests proscribed in Section 4. Honestly, what is the big deal about that? There is more than ample data available as regards to racial composition and voter registration in congressional districts.
The VRA has never had any problems being reauthorized (in its original form) by Congress.The mere fact that Congress may actually have to do some work to update Section 4 is not the end of the world. On ther other hand, with this Congress.....
