US Supreme Court strikes down Voting Rights Act clause 25 June 2013 Last updated at 15:24 The US Supreme Court has struck down a key part of a landmark Civil Rights-era electoral law designed to protect minority voters. By a margin of 5-4, the justices struck down section 4 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. They ruled that an updated method was needed to decide which jurisdictions' election laws require monitoring. The law requires a number of US states, mostly in the South, to receive federal approval for election changes. Shelby County in Alabama launched the legal challenge. The Voting Rights Act was extended for 25 years in 2006 with broad support. The law was intended to stop practices such as literacy tests, poll taxes or similar measures designed to keep black people from voting, in states with a history of racial discrimination.