Welcome everyone to court side, a discussion of legal issues, hopefully legal issues that don't involve Donald Trump, and that's certainly the case today.

Because today, on March 7, 56 years ago, John Lewis and a bunch of American patriots tried to cross the Pettus Bridge in Selma.

They were beaten, skulls cracked. And their bravery and conviction

inspired the Voting Rights Act. And today I want to talk only about the Voting Rights Act.

You know, we've talked about it in different episodes, you know, around the margins. But today,

I really think it's worth focusing because five days ago,

the Supreme Court heard a case that may decide the fate of the Voting Rights Act.

And the case doesn't arrive in a vacuum.

John Lewis, for the first time in 56 years, is no longer with us.

And the case arrives against the backdrop of the most

concerted effort to deprive people of the right to vote in generations. Indeed, just after the

November election, over 100 different bills have been introduced to try and make it harder for people

to vote. Now, it used to be that these kinds of bills,

even if they were passed into law by state legislatures,

wouldn't matter.

And that's because of part of the Voting Rights Act.

The Voting Rights Act had two different provisions in it.

One was called Section 5 and one was called Section 2.

Section 5 said, you know, these racist states and localities

are really clever at coming up with ways to deprive people of the right to vote. So, for example,

they might close a polling place an hour early, or they might move it across the street or something.

That looks, you know, relatively neutral,

...