Luis Fuentes-Rohwer has posted Staring Down the Revolution: On Federalism, Congressional Powers, and the Upcoming Extension of the Voting Rights Act on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

In enacting the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Congress sought to overcome decades of neglect and outright refusal to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment. Well aware of the severe nature of the means chosen to accomplish this worthy end, Congress put a five year termination date to its coverage formula under the Act. Yet extensions soon followed, to the point that these temporary provisions have become for all intents and purposes permanent features of the American political landscape. This is a significant development, for these intrusive federal requirements were initially justified as, inter alia, temporary measures. We can pretend no longer. And as a result, the Supreme Court will face what promises to be the stiffest challenge to its federalism revolution of late. If the federalism revolution means anything, the Court must strike down a new extension of the Act. But, as this Essay concludes, the Court will not have the will to overturn one of the crown jewels of the civil rights movement. This will be a momentous occasion, for it will offer further proof that the Court knows when to pick a fight and when to back off.