There is nothing in the text or the legislative history of the Voting Rights Act which suggests the legislation was intended to self-destruct within a specified number of years. In addition, there are no logical or empirical standards independent of the Act that can be used by the judiciary to determine when it should expire.
And yet, a day after it was revealed that several prominent Young Republicans had used egregious racial slurs in group texts, it appears that the Court is prepared to invalidate Section 2 of the Act based on its perception–based on, if anything, a number pulled out of the air by Justice O’Connor decades ago–that America is now a completely colorblind country with no further need to protect racial minorities. Isn’t that special?