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tory voting changes on 626 occasions, while state and local units of government withdrew over 800 proposed voting changes in response to Justice Department inquiries, Tatel said in summarizing the evidence Congress compiled.
• In dissent, Judge Stephen Williams said the Voting Rights Act "imposes rather extraordinary burdens" based on information about discrimination that is several decades old.
• Williams said the law applies substantive standards "quite different from those governing the rest of the nation."
• Jurisdictions covered by

Section 5 of the law were chosen based on whether they had a test restricting the opportunity to register or vote and whether they had a voter registration or turnout rate below 50 percent.
• But the law specifies that the elections for which these two criteria are measured must be ones that took place several decades ago, said Williams.
• "It goes without saying that racism persists," wrote Williams. "But without more evidence distinguishing current conditions in the covered jurisdictions from those in the uncovered ones," the law's "coverage formula appears to be as obsolete in practice as one would expect" for evidence that is several decades old.
• Addressing Williams's point, Tatel said the question is not whether old data is being used, but whether it helps identify the jurisdictions with the worst discrimination problems.
• "If it does, then even though the formula rests on decades-old factors, the statute is rational," said Tatel.
• Tatel said Congress dealt with the issue of old information by adding a "bailout"

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