List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgments Introduction: Congressional Authority and Voting Rights Enforcement A Retrospective and Prospective Look at the Voting Rights Act Chapter 1: Why Discretion Matters in Voting Rights Enforcement Chapter 2: Obama's Inheritance: The Johnson Framework, the VRA, and Faith in Federal Power The Challenge to Congressional Authority Chapter 3: Misdirection: Political Theatre and the 2006 Reauthorization of Section 5 Chapter 4: Partisan Spoils of Office: A post-Shaw Judicial Philosophy of Civic Literacy Chapter 5: Is "Bull Connor" Dead? Contemporary Public Opinion on Voting Rights Policy Chapter 6: A Battle of Principals: Congress, the DOJ, and the George W. Bush Administration A Systems Theory Approach to Enforcement Chapter 7: The Macro-Political Context Shaping Enfranchisement, 2000-2008 Conclusion: Regulating Discretion and the Challenge of Post-Racial Politics Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Selected Bibliography