decade. more on that in a moment. to truly understand the stakes of this moment, you have to go back to 2013, not too long ago. that s when the supreme court in a 5-4 division effectively gutted the voting rights act, striking down a key section of the 1965 law known as the preclearance requirement. it required certain states with a history of voter suppression to get federal approval before implementing changes to their electoral or election policies, including redistricting. now, the point was to ensure that these changes did not discriminate against protected minorities before they became laws in their states. chief justice john robert plus, who authored that majority opinion, declared the requirement was no longer needed because, quote, our country has changed. now, i don t have to tell you how wrong chief justice roberts was in all of this. what followed that decision speaks for itself. within 24 hours of that ruling, texas announced that it would implement a strict photo id law