When the Letter Betrays the Spirit

List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Congressional Authority and Voting Rights Enforcement
A Retrospective and Prospective Look at the Voting Rights Act
Chapter 1: Why Discretion Matters in Voting Rights Enforcement
Chapter 2: Obama's Inheritance: The Johnson Framework, the VRA, and Faith in Federal Power
The Challenge to Congressional Authority
Chapter 3: Misdirection: Political Theatre and the 2006 Reauthorization of Section 5
Chapter 4: Partisan Spoils of Office: A post-Shaw Judicial Philosophy of Civic Literacy
Chapter 5: Is "Bull Connor" Dead? Contemporary Public Opinion on Voting Rights Policy
Chapter 6: A Battle of Principals: Congress, the DOJ, and the George W. Bush Administration
A Systems Theory Approach to Enforcement
Chapter 7: The Macro-Political Context Shaping Enfranchisement, 2000-2008
Conclusion: Regulating Discretion and the Challenge of Post-Racial Politics
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Selected Bibliography

King-Meadows does an outstanding job of advancing an inherently difficult proposition-a Congress-Centered approach to voting rights enforcement. Because he is so meticulous in analyzing the many practical implications of our current Executive-Centered Framework, and does it using many different kinds of evidence, his book will be of great interest to scholars who study African American politics, voting rights and civil rights policy, political representation, as well as public policy implementation.