Supreme Court hears case that questions major plank of voting rights

Supreme Court hears case that questions major plank of voting rights

Nina Totenberg

Alyssa Kapasi

October 15, 2025 / 2:00 am

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the landmark Voting Rights Act. declaring that "today is a triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on any battlefield."

But over the last 12 years, the increasingly conservative Supreme Court has hollowed out that law, leaving only one major provision standing. Now that provision is in danger of being struck down, too.

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act aims to ensure that minority voters are not shut out of the process of drawing new congressional districts. When the law was passed in 1965 there were just six African-American, four Hispanic and two Asian or Pacific Islander members of the Hou