Shelby County v. Holder

Decided June 25, 2013. John Glover Roberts Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 12-96 · 570 U.S. 529 (2013) · Cited 335 times

We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.

How the Justices voted

Decided 5–4.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder · 557 U.S. 193 (2009)
• South Carolina v. Katzenbach · 383 U.S. 301 (1966)
• City of Rome v. United States · 446 U.S. 156 (1980)
• Hunter v. Underwood · 471 U.S. 222 (1985)
• United States v. Raines · 362 U.S. 17 (1960)
• Shaw v. Reno · 509 U.S. 630 (1993)
• Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board · 528 U.S. 320 (2000)
• Broadrick v. Oklahoma · 413 U.S. 601 (1973)
• Reynolds v. Sims · 377 U.S. 533 (1964)
• Presley v. Etowah County Commission · 502 U.S. 491 (1992)
• Georgia v. Ashcroft, Attorney General · 539 U.S. 461 (2003)
• National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius · 567 U.S. 519 (2012)
• United States v. Louisiana · 363 U.S. 1 (1960)
• United States v. Salerno · 481 U.S. 739 (1987)
• Yick Wo v. Hopkins · 118 U.S. 356 (1886)
• City of Boerne v. Flores · 521 U.S. 507 (1997)
• United States v. Morrison · 529 U.S. 598 (2000)
• Gregory v. Ashcroft · 501 U.S. 452 (1991)
• United States v. Price · 383 U.S. 787 (1966)
• Johnson v. De Grandy · 512 U.S. 997 (1994)
• Tennessee v. Lane · 541 U.S. 509 (2004)
• United States v. Georgia · 546 U.S. 151 (2006)
• Allen v. State Board of Elections · 393 U.S. 544 (1969)
• Smith v. Allwright · 321 U.S. 649 (1944)
• Katzenbach v. Morgan · 384 U.S. 641 (1966)
• Carrington v. Rash · 380 U.S. 89 (1965)
• Grutter v. Bollinger · 539 U.S. 306 (2003)
• Nevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs · 538 U.S. 721 (2003)
• Sugarman v. Dougall · 413 U.S. 634 (1973)
• Blodgett v. Holden · 275 U.S. 142 (1927)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee · 594 U.S. 647 (2021)
• Bethune-Hill v. Virginia State Bd. of Elections · 580 U.S. 178 (2017)
• Abbott v. Perez · 585 U.S. 579 (2018)
• Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama · 575 U.S. 254 (2015)
• Franchise Tax Bd. of Cal. v. Hyatt · 587 U.S. 230 (2019)
• Allen v. Milligan · 599 U.S. 1 (2023)
• Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Assn. · 575 U.S. 92 (2015)
• Cooper v. Harris · 581 U.S. 285 (2017)
• National Pork Producers Council v. Ross · 598 U.S. 356 (2023)
• 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis · 600 U.S. 570 (2023)
• Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo · 603 U.S. 369 (2024)
• Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College · 600 U.S. 181 (2023)
• United States v. Skrmetti · 605 U.S. 495 (2025)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).