LDF released a report, Democracy Diminished: State and Local Threats to Voting Post-Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder (Shelby County), a detailed collection of state, county, and local voting changes — proposed or implemented — during the three years after the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder. The Court’s decision in Shelby County eliminated the provision of the Voting Rights Act that for fifty years required jurisdictions with a history of voting discrimination to submit proposed changes to a federal authority for preclearance before implementation. The “preclearance” provision of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act has long been regarded as the most important means of protecting minority voters from voting discrimination. The Shelby County decision struck down the formula that brought state and local jurisdictions under Section 5’s preclearance protocol.