Click here for the Supreme Court’s decision in the Shelby County case in .pdf format.
Bryan Tyson practices law with the Atlanta firm Strickland Brockington Lewis and has experience with redistricting, elections law and previously worked as a policy aide to Republican Congressman Lynn Westmoreland. Bryan Tyson writes about decisions of the Supreme Court of Georgia at SCOGBlog.com.
“The decision in Shelby County vindicates exactly what Congressman Lynn Westmoreland and others from Georgia said when Congress considered the renewal in 2006 — the coverage formula had to be updated if the preclearance provisions were to survive scrutiny. The organizations that are bemoaning this decision were many of the same groups that rejected any change to the formula in 2006.”
“This decision shifts the burden back to those challenging election changes to show discrimination instead of requiring certain states and counties to prove that there is no discrimination for each and every change. And the decision puts the states back on equal footing. The prior preclearance regime singled out certain states based on an admittedly-horrible history. Now any future preclearance will have to be based on current problems.”
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