The Voting Rights Act has two key goals. The first (and more salient in recent years) is blocking practices that make it more difficult for minorities to vote. The second is stopping policies, such as certain district plans, that make it harder for minorities to elect their preferred candidates. Despite its lower profile, redistricting is where Shelby County is likely to have the biggest impact.

The statutory provision the Court nullified, Section 5, used to protect all “ability” districts in covered areas. These are districts in which minority voters are numerous enough to elect their top-choice candidates. Section 5 shielded these districts by banning any “diminishing [of] the ability” of minorities to “elect their preferred candidates of choice.”

But the Court has held that the law’s main surviving (and nationally applicable) provision, Section 2, does not always protect ability districts. If their shapes are too contorted, or if their minority residents are too diverse or make up less than half of the population, then they can be dismantled without violating the statute.

Read more at The New York Times