The conservative supreme court justices behind the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act

Roberts and Alito’s shared interest in, and assault on, voting rights legislation stretches back decades. Composite: Javier Palma/The Guardian/Getty Images

The ruling from the US supreme court destroying one of the last pillars of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) marks the end of a long and painstaking campaign to roll back civil rights legislation by two titans of the court’s rightwing majority, Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito.

Acting as an unspoken double act, the duo have chipped away at what has been called the crown jewel of the civil rights movement. Wednesday’s ruling in Louisiana v Callais is the fifth major supreme court decision authored by the two justices that have slowly but surely strangled efforts to protect the democratic rights of Black and other minority Americans.