In 2013, the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County v. Holder gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act — the "preclearance" provision that required jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination to get federal approval before changing their voting laws. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the formula was outdated, effectively inviting Congress to write a new one.

Congress tried. The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (H.R. 4) would have restored preclearance with an updated formula based on recent voting rights violations. It passed the House in 2019 and again in 2021.

Mitch McConnell refused to bring it to the Senate floor. He claimed the Voting Rights Act was still "in pretty good shape" — directly contradicting the Supreme Court's ruling and the lived experience of millions.

How It Harmed Americans:

Without preclearance, states previously covered by the Voting Rights Act moved aggressively. Texas closed 750 polling places between 2012 and 2018 — more than any other state — with the closures concentrated in counties with the largest growth in Black and Latino populations. Georgia purged hundreds of thousands of voters from the rolls. North Carolina enacted a voter ID law that a federal court found "target[ed] African Americans with almost surgical precision."

By blocking the bill named for his congressional colleague John Lewis, who was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge fighting for the right to vote, McConnell ensured these discriminatory practices would face no federal check.

Reference List:

• H.R. 4, John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, 116th and 117th Congress

• Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013)

• Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, "Democracy Diverted: Polling Place Closures" (2019)

• U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, "Assessment of Minority Voting Rights Access in the United States" (2018)

• North Carolina NAACP v. McCrory, 831 F.3d 204 (4th Cir. 2016)