Emmett Till's legacy?

The Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act was recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden. News reports mostly emphasized the huge majorities supporting the law in both houses and the fact that it had taken over a century and over 200 attempts to achieve this. Some mentioned the fact that several senators later said they had not known what they were voting for. There has, however, been little discussion of the fact that in 2022 this law is still needed in the US. Lynching is defined as the killing of someone, usually by a mob, usually by hanging, for an alleged offence with or without a trial. It is tempting to conclude that near unanimity among Democrats and Republicans in favor of this law indicates widespread acknowledgement that this continues to be a problem in our day. I would not blame cynics for concluding that this only indicates that Congress decided voting against it would look bad in the upcoming election. I would take even that as a positive because it would mean that "We the People" do have a say. However, we should remember there was widespread public support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Yet less than 50 years later the Supreme Court by a 5-4 majority struck down key provisions of the law essentially because 5 of the 9 justices felt the data used for passage of the law were no longer valid. What they were saying, no doubt with straight faces, was that inequities in voting procedures were no longer a problem and the law was therefore unfair to southern states. The fact that Congress passed the law to ensure such inequities would not re-surface was not considered. The irony is that as they gutted the Voting Rights Act because it was no longer justified, Justice Scalia and his ilk were pushing originalism in support of the over 200-year-old principles enshrined in our constitution by our Founding Fathers, refusing to consider that things may have changed over the centuries. As we have seen, southern states at whom the Voting Rights Act was directed, wasted no time making changes to voting laws minimizing the impact of the minority vote. Any chance the current Supreme Court will say "Oops, our bad!" and reverse Shelby County vs Holder? Don't hold your breath. And don't spare any effort to make your voice heard this election year.