House Democrats introduce bill to undo Supreme Court’s gutting of Voting Rights Act

House Democrats introduce bill to undo Supreme Court’s gutting of Voting Rights Act

House Democrats on Tuesday unanimously introduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, a bill named for the late civil rights leader that would restore and expand the protections of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority gutted in two infamous rulings in 2013 and 2021.

The House had previously passed a version of the legislation in 2021, but it failed to advance in the Senate last year when Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema sided with every Republican to support a filibuster against it.

Once again sponsored by Alabama Rep. Terri Sewell, the revised bill would establish a new formula to determine which states and localities must “preclear” any proposed changes to election laws and procedures with the Justice Department or a federal court. The previous preclearance regime, which was struck down in 2013 by the Supreme Court, applied to states and localities—largely in the South—with a history of racial discrimination in their voting laws. Its dismantling sparked a wave of GOP-backed voter suppression laws, many of which have targeted people of color.

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