Noah Feldman, Columnist

For This Judge, the Civil Rights Movement Isn't History

The past is alive when it comes to voting laws. At least that's one view.

September 18, 2016 at 2:30 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."
Source: Keystone/Getty Images

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Judges aren't history teachers. Or are they?

That question lies at the heart of a deep left-right split over voting-rights laws. One side says that changes in state voting requirements should be assessed in the context of the American civil rights struggle. The other side says that history is irrelevant to the legality of modern voting practices.