Reading the opinion. An open thread first glance:

House Republicans who wanted to “fix” the formula are left high and dry. There  isn’t going to be a fix.  Section 5 is dead and buried and the Court leaves no room to fix it.

* Court weighed 2006 reauthorization: “Nearly 50 years later, they are still in effect; indeed, they have been made more stringent, and are now scheduled to last until 2031. There is no denying, however, that the conditions that originally justified these measures no longer characterize voting in the covered jurisdictions.”

* Court cites 10th Amendment. “Constitution provides that all powers not specifically granted to the Federal Government are reserved to the States or citizens. Amdt. 10.”

* I’ve been including this notion in my speeches: “But the federal balance “is not just an end in itself: Rather, federalism secures to citizens the liberties that derive from the diffusion of sovereign power.”

* Greedy race groups and House GOP who reauthorized Section 5 contributed to it’s demise today: “Those extraordinary and unprecedented features were reauthorized—as if nothing had changed. In fact, the Act’s unusual remedies have grown even stronger. When Congress reauthorized the Act in 2006, it did so for another 25 years on top of the previous 40—a far cry from the initial five-year period.”

* Forget fixing Section 4. It’s dead. Supreme Court says you cannot reverse engineer coverage.  Congressional Republicans are just going to have to win elections without racial gerrymandering.

* Ouch: “In other ways as well, the dissent analyzes the question presented as if our decision in Northwest Austin never happened.”  That about sums up lots of folks.