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Forty Years Later: Chronicling The Voting Rights Act Of 1965 And Its Impact On Louisiana's Judiciary, Jonathan C. Augustine, Hon. U. Gene Thibodeaux

Jonathan C. Augustine

Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), pursuant to its Thirteenth Amendment constitutional authority. While the Act was significant in building upon the previous year’s Civil Rights Act of 1964, the VRA’s impact on the judiciary was not evidenced until almost thirty years later. After years of protracted litigation, the Supreme Court finally ruled the VRA applied to judicial elections. This Article was written in celebration of the VRA’s fortieth anniversary and in tribute to Bernette Joshua Johnson, the only African American justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. This Article argues the VRA’s application to the judiciary was …