The Supreme Court case that could upend the Voting Rights Act

On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti

WBUR

Talk Show, Daily News, News, Npr, On Point, Daily

4.2 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

Later this month, the Supreme Court will hear a case that could overturn a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that protects against racial discrimination. Without it, some legal experts say states and local jurisdictions would be permitted to effectively silence the votes of millions of people.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for WBUR comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software for technical computing and model-based design.
0:09.0	MathWorks, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science.
0:13.6	Learn more at MathWorks.com.
0:16.3	Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Mayrotra Institute at B.U. Questrum School of
0:23.4	Business that asks the thorny questions necessary for this moment. Follow Is Business Broken and stay
0:29.7	tuned for new episodes this fall. WBUR Podcasts, Boston. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.
0:50.3	Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color.
0:59.0	This law will ensure them the right to vote.
1:06.0	The wrong is one which no American in his heart can justify.
1:15.5	The right is one which no American prove to our principles can deny.
1:27.1	President Lyndon B. Johnson, August 6, 1965. principles can deny.
1:27.5	President Lyndon B. Johnson, August 6, 1965.
1:32.6	This law covers many pages, but the heart of the act is plain.
1:39.8	Wherever by clear and objective standards, states and counties are using regulations or laws or tests
1:47.5	to deny the right to vote, then they will be struck down.
1:54.9	In 1965, the United States was still not fully enforcing the rights conveyed to black Americans via the 15th Amendment.
2:04.3	That amendment granted black men the right to vote, and it was ratified in 1870.
2:11.6	95 years later, many black voters in the South still face deliberate bureaucratic hurdles to voting,
2:17.2	such as poll taxes
2:18.2	and literacy tests.
2:20.2	The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice
2:27.7	and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they're different from other men.
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