Conquered Provinces’? The Voting Rights Act and State Power.” Publius 36.3

Congress will soon review key provisions of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). A perennial concern has been the act’s effect on federalism. In 1982, Congress amended the VRA both to prevent discriminatory electoral outcomes and to enhance minority political power. Since the 1990s, the Supreme Court has adjudicated the VRA in a way that limits states ’ use of race to protect that power. An informal alliance has since emerged between Congress, the Justice Department, states, and minority voters against what they view as a retrogressive voting rights jurisprudence. This article will argue that Congress should restore state autonomy to use race as a remedial factor when districting by reaffirming the spirit and intent of the 1982 amendments. One of the most powerful engines of democracy in America, the Voting Rights Act (VRA), is scheduled for reauthorization in 2007. Since key provisions of the act infringe on state power to regulate electoral processes, it is considered a significant departure from traditional concepts of dual federalism. There were even fears that the VRA’s enforcement provisions would reduce states to little more than ‘‘conquered provinces’ ’ (Ball et al. 1982, 57, 90, 144).1 As it turns out, those fears were not entirel