Disenfranchisement and Economic Inequality: Downstream Effects of Shelby County v. Holder

Abstract

The 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) is considered by many to be the most effective civil rights law ever passed. In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down important provisions from the VRA in Shelby County v. Holder. This paper first discusses how the potential weakening of minority political power brought about by Shelby County may have made the government less responsive to minorities' policy demands. Then we proceed to show that the lack of minority power is already producing economic inequality that is reflected in public-sector wages and in private-sector occupations with a high number of public workers.