Statement: The Constitution of the United States says little about the right to vote but it does give Congress and the federal government the power to establish the “Times, Places, and Manner” of national elections and requires every state to have a representative form of government with elections and majority rule. Over the decades, through Constitutional Amendments, laws and court decisions, who has the right to vote has been clarified. Most notably we have the 14th, 15th and 19th amendments and the 1965 Voting Rights Act and its bi-partisan reauthorization in 2006, all protecting voting rights, particularly for racial and ethnic minorities. However, recent Supreme Court decisions, starting with Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, have made it significantly more difficult for the federal government to assure non-discriminatory voting rights practices on a state and local level.