Senate Democrats condemned recent state election reform laws as a “Tsunami of voter suppression” and a declaration of “open season on voting rights” during a tense subcommittee hearing Wednesday on proposals to federalize election law and regulation. Officially, the hearing of the Constitution Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee was focused on two recent Supreme Court decisions that Democrats argue gutted two key sections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). The Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, Attorney General case in 2013 was a 5-4 decision that limited Section Five of the VRA, which empowered unelected Department of Justice (DOJ) officials to pre-clear or deny proposed changes in election laws of specific Southern states to ensure they aren’t discriminatory. In Brnovich, Attorney General of Arizona v. Democratic National Committee, a 6-3 decision announced July 1, the High Court upheld states’ authority to ban election practices like “ballot harvesting” where political …