The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court noted during the oral argument that in the year before reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, there was 3700 submissions under Section 5.  Of that high total, there was a total of one objection in that crucial year prior the reauthorization hearings.  That objection appears to be focused on the town of Delhi, Louisiana with a current population of 2919 people.  During the Civil War, historians reported “Union sympathy” in the city so the town was not exactly a hotbed of racial discrimination.

In 2005, it had 2,202 people and the 2000 Census revealed 51% voting age African American population in the city.  All things being considered, you would expect roughly half representation on any local government to be fair distribution of power.  However, the Department of Justice Voting Section objected under the max-black theory, that the town needed to maximize their black representation with four members instead of three minority council members out of what appears to be a total of five members on the council.  A supermajority of black representation was the only way for this small town to avoid an objection, a clear majority was not going to be good enough.

Not surprising, the idea of DOJ providing a clean record to Congress in 2005 was simply out of the question.