One law student wrote that the agreement could break the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which protects minority voters. However, the U.S. Department of Justice decided that the agreement does not hurt minority voters. It allowed California to join the agreement in 2012. Rob Richie of the organization FairVote says that the NPVIC "treats all voters equally". The same student wrote the NPVIC tries to go around the normal way of changing the Constitution. Raskin replied that going around in this way is legal.