Jeff Toobin: “In light of that record, the odds are that the Court will reach the same kind of conclusion with regard to the Voting Rights Act and declare Section 5 unconstitutional. At that point, the white-controlled legislatures of the former Confederacy will be largely on their own in protecting minority voting rights. For better or worse, our problems are solved when the Court says they are—and these Justices appear determined indeed to close the door to an era that may not be completely over.”

My earlier analysis of the Shelby County case, on its way to the Supreme Court, is here.