The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is widely hailed as the crown jewel of the civil rights movement, the most effective civil rights statute in history. It would be hard to overstate the importance of the Act in American political life. Its impact on the political culture of the South was immediate and decisive, a culture that had grown accustomed to under-enforcing the voting rights of its African-American citizenry.

As the U.S. Congress debates whether to reauthorize this historic piece of legislation, I fear that this will be a missed opportunity. One way to think about this debate is to ask whether Congress should reauthorize the Act at all. Put another way: is the Act still necessary?

In order to understand this question, we must be clear on what provisions of the Act are subject to debate. Three particular provisions deserve close scrutiny:

• Under its coverage formula, the Act targets those areas of the country with a history of racial or language discrimination, primarily — though not exclusively — in the South. These are known as covered jurisdictions. This formula has been extended in 1970, 1975 and 1982.
• Once covered, a jurisdiction must receive approval from federal officials for basically any changes in their voting laws. In other words, these laws would be presumed illegal unless the jurisdictions could show federal actors that the laws comport with the requirements of the Act.
• Under Section 203, enacted in 1975 and reauthorized in 1982 and 1992, jurisdictions that fall under the bilingual formula must provide bilingual ballots and assistance to voters.

I remain deeply ambivalent about reauthorization. On the one hand, I agree with those who advocate for extension of the Act into the future. As documented by the American Civil Liberty Union’s Voting Rights Project, the University of Michigan Voting Rights Initiative, the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act and reports from many of the states covered under the Act, racial discrimination in voting is alive and well. While the problem is clearly not what it used to be, our political culture has not matured to the point where we can begin to envision life without the special provisions of the Act. Also, reauthorization offers a clear symbol of our strong commitment to voters of color.