“The Shelby County decision caused hundreds of thousands of votes by voters of color to not be cast”

I had the opportunity this week to speak with Mike Miller (Barnard College) and Kevin Morris (the Brennan Center) about their new book, *An American Problem: How the Country Built, and the Supreme Court Broke, the Voting Rights Act.* I hope you’ll listen to this and buy their important book. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was arguably the crowning achievement of both the Civil Rights Movement and the Lyndon Johnson administration. But beyond that, quite a few scholars see its passage as the moment that the United States became a full multiracial democracy. Key to the Voting Rights Act’s success was the novel concept of “preclearance.” Under this formula, states and localities with a history of racial discrimination would need to get permission from the federal government to change their voting laws. The burden was on the states and localities to demonstrate that their new rules wouldn’t harm non-white voter participation and representation. This approach to the law was highly successful and substantially limited racial voter suppression. Indeed its passage led to an era of Black voter turnout that was roughly equal to that of whites. This period of relative electoral equality came to an end with the Supreme Court’s ruling in *Shelby County v. Holder* (2013), and racial protections for voting rights have eroded ever since. This is a terribly important story for understanding modern American democracy. Kevin and Mike tell this story in a very clear and compelling way and bring a great deal of voting data to bear in a way that only social scientists can do. Anyway, please enjoy the conversation and check out the book! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smotus.substack.com/subscribe