Ryan Reilly gets the big quotes from Rep. Sensenbrenner on the prospects for fixing the VRA:

“It’s going to be much more difficult,” Sensenbrenner said. “Both figuring out how to make Section 4 compliant with the court’s decision in the Shelby County case, as well as figuring out what type of a formula would be able to pass both houses, is going to require an awful lot of political input and negotiations.

“This is a puzzle that is not going to be easy to solve,” he said. “You know, if you sit next to someone who is doing sudoku on the plane, you know you’ve got the easy ones and the hard ones. This is going to be the hard one squared.”…

“The Justice Department’s activity and lack of activity, particularly with the intimidation that I think was going on in north Philadelphia with the New Black Panther Party, is going to make it much more difficult to revive the Voting Rights Act,” Sensenbrenner said. “The Justice Department is going to have to be in on this and they’re going to have to be sensitive that they’re going to have to address some of these concerns if there is to be a revival of the Voting Rights Act.”