From KCRW in Santa Monica and PRI, Public Radio International, this is To the Point.

Has the South outgrown the Voting Rights Act?

Hello again, I'm Aron Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

After the

re-election of America's first black president, Alabama and other states want the U.S. Supreme

Court to throw out a key section of the Voting Rights Act. It requires states and localities with

histories of racial discrimination to check with the Justice Department when they change voting

laws. Democrats and Republicans extended it almost unanimously. In 2006, George

W. Bush signed the new law. But in a case financed by a shadowy conservative fundraiser,

states claim they're being punished for sins of the past. The last year's local elections

tell a different story. The Supreme Court will hear arguments next week. Did Chief Justice Roberts invite the

challenge? First, here's the news.

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at KCRW.com. Support for To The Point comes from the members of KCRW and from the Public Radio

International Program Fund. Hello again, Warren Alney, back with To the Point.

Conservatives and liberals agree that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 helped blacks and other

minorities get the right to vote in states of the former Confederacy.

But Alabama and other states insist that times have changed.

And next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear their challenge.

Does the law infringe on state sovereignty?

What about efforts to limit voting in last year's elections?

...