284
Opinion of the Court
have just such an effect in a covered county. Section 5, as we interpret it today, burdens state law only to the extent that that law affects voting in jurisdictions properly designated for coverage. With respect to literacy tests, in fact, the Act already allows for the very action that the State claims would be unconstitutional here. At least until a 1970 amendment to the Act barring literacy tests nationwide, see 42 U. S. C. § 1973aa, § 4 had been used to ban these tests in covered jurisdictions even where the tests had been enacted by a noncovered State. See Gaston County v. United States, 395 U. S. 285, 287 (1969) (although State was not covered, "[u]se of the State's literacy test within the county was . . . suspended" when the county was designated a covered jurisdiction). Moreover, under § 4(b), a state-imposed literacy test may, as it did here, provide grounds for designating a county as a covered jurisdiction, notwithstanding the fact that the State as a whole is not covered.
The State seeks to bolster its constitutional argument by noting that partially covered States, like California, have no statutory ability to seek an exemption from the Act's coverage. Section 4(a) permits a covered jurisdiction to seek declaratory relief exempting the jurisdiction from further coverage if it meets certain criteria. 42 U. S. C. § 1973b(a). Even if California were unable to use this "bailout" provision on behalf of its covered counties, but see United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburgh, Inc. v. Carey, 430 U. S., at 148-149, n. 3 (noting that New York State sought exemptions on behalf of covered counties), this would not advance the State's constitutional claim. Partially covered States facing suspension of their literacy tests in covered counties would have faced the same dilemma. In any event, there is no question that the County may avail itself of § 4(a)'s bailout procedures.
In short, the Voting Rights Act, by its nature, intrudes on state sovereignty. The Fifteenth Amendment permits this
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