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Abstract
This article investigates the relationship between Congressional GOP roll call votes on the Voting Rights Act reauthorization (VRARA) in 2006 and the GOP response to Shelby v. Holder in 2013. Why did the GOP support the VRARA in 2006 and the Shelby decision in 2013 that effectively nullified the VRA? The analysis presented here will demonstrate that the ideological position of the GOP – opposition to the VRA – was the same in both situations. Because Congress was a politically dangerous place for the GOP to oppose the VRA in 2006, it widened the scope of the conflict and helped facilitate the evisceration of Section 5 by the Supreme Court, instead of attempting to achieve that goal in Congress.
Published Online: 2018-08-30
©2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
