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The provision at issue in Wednesday's case before the court applies to parts of the U.S. where discriminatory voting practices were once rampant. The formula that covers those areas hasn't changed since 1975. The crux of the case: whether times have changed so much that Congress violated the Constitution when it reauthorized the law in 2006.

The Supreme Court is reviewing a key section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, originally designed to wring institutionalized discrimination from voting in the Old South. It follows an election season when the act was used to forestall proposed changes in several states.

The head of the conservative Project on Fair Representation has spent years pursuing legal channels to roll back a key section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. His efforts helped bring the issue before the U.S. Supreme Court, which hears arguments Wednesday.

The last time the Supreme Court heard a challenge to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, only one state asked that its key provision be struck down. But just four years later, seven states say the most effective civil rights statute in the nation's history has outlived its usefulness.

As the Supreme Court takes up fundamental challenges to voting rights laws and affirmative action, the storied NAACP Legal Defense Fund prepares to take on a new leader, Sherrilyn Ifill.

At issue is whether states that once blocked African-Americans from voting should still be subject to the landmark 1965 legislation.

A federal court has rejected part of Florida's new election law that would have restricted the number of early voting days. The ruling, affecting five counties, is a win for groups who say the new law was meant to suppress voter participation in areas with large minority populations.

At stake is whether Louisiana will now have its first African-American chief justice. Justice Bernette Johnson was elected in 1994 to a special seat created to remedy racial disparities. Now, there's a conflict over whether she is actually the longest-serving justice, and therefore entitled to be the chief.

Alabama, Florida and Texas are among five jurisdictions challenging the constitutionality of a key provision of the civil rights law that requires governments with a history of discrimination to get federal permission to change election procedures.

A federal judge has blocked state elections officials from enforcing tough restrictions on groups that conduct voter registration drives. And the Justice Department has sent a letter to Florida telling it to immediately halt efforts to purge from the voting rolls people suspected of being noncitizens.