By Catherine Thompson

The Constitutional Accountability Center on Tuesday condemned the Supreme Court’s striking of Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, which the think tank said prevents Congress from exercising its rightful power to stop the practice of racial discrimination in voting.

“Today is a sad day for all Americans who care about protection of one our most fundamental rights, the right to vote,” said David Gans, the center’s civil rights director, in a press release. “In striking down a core provision of the Voting Rights Act, the Court flouts the text and history of the Fifteenth Amendment, which expressly give to Congress broad powers to prevent and deter all forms of racial discrimination in voting.

“As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg explained in a powerful dissent,” he continued. “Congress properly used these broad constitutional powers to prevent current and ongoing racial discrimination in voting concentrated in the covered jurisdictions.

“Justice Ginsburg further explained that Congress was not required to update the coverage formula, because the Voting Rights Act’s 15,000-page record in 2006 shows that pre-clearance continues to cover the jurisdictions with the worst record of voting discrimination.”