Professor Darby will discuss the Supreme Court’s racial progress argument in Shelby County and argue that the case replaces a conservative narrative about racial progress with a liberal one. Although Professor Darby is partial to the latter narrative and believes that the Court’s overall argument for striking down the coverage formula is deeply flawed, it seems unwise to rest the entire case for saving the Voting Rights Act from further weakening and for defending the right to vote on winning the racial progress argument, especially in a nation so smitten by the view that we have reached the “postracial” promised land.