Latinos and the VRA: A Modern Fix for Modern-Day Discrimination

In June of 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court in Shelby County, Alabama v Holder struck down the Section 4(b) coverage formula of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by a five-to-four margin. Almost one-third of all eligible Latino voters in the U.S. live in the states and localities subject to the pre-Shelby coverage formula. Asserting that "voting discrimination against Latinos is obvious, egregious, and far-reaching," the three organizations producing this report urge Congress to pass the bipartisan Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2014. To demonstrate the extent to which Latino voters have been subject to voting rights discrimination both before and after the Shelby decision, the report highlights examples of discriminatory laws and practices that were either outlawed before Shelby or allowed to stand post-Shelby. The inventory of such laws and practices covers the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, New York and Texas.  

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