On June 25th, 2013 the US Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, when they ruled 5 to 4 that Section 4 was unconstitutional. The case, Shelby v. Holder, was financed in part by multi-billionaire hedge fund manager Paul “The Vulture” Singer.

Earlier this week, ProPublica revealed that Singer flew Justice Samuel Alito on his private jet to Alaska for a luxury fishing vacation in early 2008 (a gift which Alito failed to disclose). Singer subsequently had multiple cases before Alito and the Supreme Court — including a 15-year long dispute with the nation of Argentina. Justice Alito also just happened to be the surprise deciding vote on Shelby v. Holder.

That was Singer's holy grail, to destroy the Voting Rights Act, because he knew it was the key to Republican vote suppression efforts. Indeed, the entire vote suppression effort that we've been reporting on for the past decade relied on the destruction of the Voting Rights Act.

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Bellsoft Developer Advocate Pasha Finkelshteyn