COLUMBIA — Civil liberties groups said federal voter protections are still needed in South Carolina.

Lonnie Randolph is president of the South Carolina branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He said at a State Gouse news conference Tuesday that keeping Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in place is crucial to ensuring equal access to voting.

Randolph spoke the day before the U.S. Supreme Court considers an Alabama case that could end the requirement that South Carolina and other states with histories of discriminatory voting practices get federal approval for any new voting laws.

South Carolina won a lawsuit against the federal government last year after the U.S. Justice Department rejected the state’s voter identification law, saying it violated Section 5.