The Voting Rights Act, which has long been situated as “one of the most consequential, efficacious, and amply justified exercises of federal legislative power in our Nation’s history,” outlawed literacy tests and provided for the appointment of federal examiners (with the power to register qualified citizens to vote) in those jurisdictions that were “covered” according to a formula provided in the statute. Section 5 required designated areas to get federal approval before changing voting practices, and Section 2 mirrored the 15th Amendment (1870), banning the denial of voting rights based on race or color. Although the 24th Amendment (1964) ended poll taxes in national elections, the Voting Rights Act gave the Attorney General the authority to challenge their use in state and local elections, with the goal of ending Jim Crow’s discriminatory hold on Southern politics.