Louisiana v. Callais · ¶148

The Senate Report also noted this Court's holdings recognizing Congress's constitutional authority to focus the Section 2 standard on results. It is “hornbook law,” the Report explained, that the Fifteenth Amendment “grant[s] Congress broad power” to enact legislation “reasonably adapted to protect citizens against the risk” that their constitutional right to vote will be denied. Id., at 39–40 (citing Katzen bach, 383 U. S., at 326). So even though the Fifteenth Amendment itself barred only intentional discrimination, Congress could enact legislation extending to discriminatory effects. Indeed, the Report observed, this Court had held as much two years earlier, when it approved Section 5's broad effects-based scope. Senate Report, at 40 (citing City of Rome, 446 U. S. 156). In Section 2 as well, proper enforcement of the Fifteenth Amendment necessitated a results test. For one thing,…

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