# "Take the Impossible “Literacy” Test Louisiana Gave Black Voters in the 1960s"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 14, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439 "2013-07-14T01:10:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/41 "2013-07-14T23:06:26Z")

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> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#):
>
> Um, we do have protections in place so nothing like that ever happens again in the U.S. of A., right?

Rest assured, no problem. 🆒 It’s called The Voting Rights Act of 1965. [You can read here Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg explaining why that Act is still needed.](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/717244-supreme-court-decision-in-shelby-county-v-holder.html#document/p32) Ginsburg, appointed by a Democratic President, was joined by three other Justices, _all also appointed by Democrats_.

No, wait! :smack: 4 is less than 5. A majority of the Court , _all five appointed by Republican Presidents_, decided that it would be “better” to cripple The Voting Rights Act of 1965, to ensure that States are free to institute poll taxes, ID laws, literacy tests and other harrassments. ☹

Nevermind.

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**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2013, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/42 "2013-07-15T00:13:01Z")

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The Supreme Court did not overturn the part of the VRA that explicitly bans literacy tests. A former preclearance state can now _try_ to have literacy tests, but a federal court should block it, and the Supreme Court has not given any reason for a ban on literacy tests to be unconstitutional.

(Yet…)

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