One morning a little over 10 years ago, Congresswoman Terri Sewell sat next to John Lewis at the US supreme court as they listened to oral arguments in Shelby county v Holder. They heard lawyers fight over the constitutionality of a formula requiring states with a history of voting discrimination to get voting changes pre-approved by the federal government before they went into effect.
Sewell, a Democrat, grew up in Selma, Alabama, the town where Lewis was nearly killed decades prior as he marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to advocate for voting rights. At the time of the arguments, she was beginning her second term representing Alabama’s seventh congressional district, which includes both Selma and Montgomery.
