Young lawyer who helped write voting rights bill ‘star-struck’ as he witnessed 1965 signing into law

By GARY FIELDS
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joel Finkelstein was an accidental witness to one of the seminal events during the Civil Rights Movement, the signing in 1965 of the Voting Rights Act. He was a year out of law school when he received a call to head to the U.S. Capitol for the signing. He had helped write the law as a lawyer in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Now 83, Finkelstein says the full magnitude of the law and its impact would not become clear to him until decades later. Today, the framed signing pen is among his most treasured possessions. The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on whether the act will be reinforced or further eroded.