Cite as: 538 U. S. 721 (2003)
Kennedy, J., dissenting
crimination in voting. This measure was justified because "Congress documented a marked pattern of unconstitutional action by the States." Garrett, 531 U. S., at 373 (citing Katzenbach, supra, at 312, 313); see also City of Boerne, supra, at 525 ("We noted evidence in the record reflecting the subsisting and pervasive discriminatory—and therefore unconstitutional—use of literacy tests" (citing Katzenbach, supra, at 333-334)). Congress' response was a "limited remedial scheme designed to guarantee meaningful enforcement of the Fifteenth Amendment." Garrett, supra, at 373. This scheme was both congruent, because it "aimed at areas where voting discrimination has been most flagrant," Katz-enbach, 383 U. S., at 315, and proportional, because it was necessary to "banish the blight of racial discrimination in voting, which has infected the electoral process in parts of our country for nearly a century," id., at 308. The Court acknowledged Congress' power to devise "strong remedial and preventive measures" to safeguard voting rights on subsequent occasions, but always explained that these measures were legitimate because they were responding to a pattern of "the widespread and persisting deprivation of constitutional rights resulting from this country's history of racial discrimination." City of Boerne, supra, at 526-527 (citing Oregon v. Mitchell, 400 U. S. 112 (1970); City of Rome v. United States, 446 U. S. 156 (1980); Katzenbach v. Morgan, 384 U. S. 641 (1966)).
This principle of our § 5 jurisprudence is well illustrated not only by the Court's opinions in these cases but also by the late Justice Harlan's dissent in Katzenbach v. Morgan. There, Justice Harlan contrasted his vote to invalidate a federal ban on New York state literacy tests from his earlier decision, in South Carolina v. Katzenbach, to uphold stronger remedial measures against the State of South Carolina, such as suspension of literacy tests, imposition of pre-clearance requirements for any changes in state voting laws, and appointment of federal voting examiners. Katzenbach
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