By John Blake, CNN

Atlanta (CNN) — In the office of civil rights icon Andrew Young there is a striking photo that took on new meaning this week.

It shows the man Young called his best friend — the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — watching television as President Lyndon Johnson delivers a speech urging Congress to pass voting rights legislation. It was March 15, 1965, a week after demonstrators marching for equal access to the ballot were beaten and tear-gassed by state troopers in Selma, Alabama. Millions of Americans watched Johnson end his speech with an allusion to the civil rights movement’s anthem, declaring, “And we shall overcome.”

Young was in the room with King that day. After Johnson’s speech ended, he glanced over at his friend and saw something he’d never seen before: King shedding tears of joy.

Six months later, the Voting Rights Act passed with overwhelming bipartisan support from lawmakers and the American public. The law would protect the rights of minority voters, as well as the elderly and poor, and became known as the “crown jewel” of the civil rights movement. Many believe the US did not become a true democracy until it was passed.

But that photo of King may now represent something else — a relic from a bygone era. That’s because the Supreme Court on Wednesday, in rejecting a contested congressional map in Louisiana, further weakened what’s left of the Voting Rights Act. The Rev. Al Sharpton said the decision put a “bullet in the heart of the voting rights movement.”

For Young, though, the court’s decision isn’t just political – it’s also personal. He marched alongside King for voting rights and helped draft the landmark law. Now 94, he has lived long enough to see its possible demise.

It’s a lot to process for Young, the former Atlanta mayor and US Ambassador to the United Nations. He spoke to CNN the day before the Supreme Court’s decision and became angry when asked about its potential implications.

“The Supreme Court will go to hell if they try to reverse it,” he said.

Young said he believes the Voting Rights Act created a better America. He cited NASA’s recent Artemis II mission, which featured four astronauts — a woman, a Black man and two White men on the first human flight to the moon in more than 50 years — as a snapshot of the inclusive country the law helped create.

“I don’t know why the Supreme Court … thinks that by backtracking on 250 years of constitutional government that’s going to do any better for the citizens of this nation,” he told CNN.

“We have come so close to making this Earth look like the kingdom of God.”

Young has a blunt response to critics of the Voting Rights Act

For many observers, the court’s decision was not a surprise. The Voting Rights Act has been under legal and political attack for years – especially under the recent conservative Supreme Court led by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Conservative critics<

By Annie Grayer, CNN

(CNN) — The deadline to renew a powerful surveillance law has exposed deep divisions in the Republican Party and left US national security officials scrambling as the potential for blind spots in intelligence collection becomes an ever increasing possibility.

For months, House Republicans have been trying to find a path forward to reauthorize the controversial spy powers. The law, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), allows authorized US officials to gather phone calls and text messages of foreign targets, but can also scoop up the data of Americans in the process.

Here’s what to know as lawmakers face a midnight deadline to re-up the authority.

How does the government use FISA?

Under updates to the FISA law enacted in 2008, the government has the ability to compel US phone companies and internet providers to provide access to communications across the “backbone” of the internet. The government can also compel access to phone information that can allow it to obtain the content of calls and also require email providers and others to provide communications from a specific address.

And according to a September 2023 public oversight report by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board – which was formed to periodically assess the program – in addition to the above methods of collecting data, the board refers to an additional “highly sensitive technique” that was only authorized in 2022.

The trove of data, including a large portion of US internet traffic, is meant to provide US intelligence agencies with quick access to data regarding foreigners in other countries.

As CNN has reported, a good portion what what appears in the Presidential Daily Brief has some data that comes from the 702 program, according to the National Security Agency.

What’s at risk if it expires?

It depends who you ask.

Senior national security officials have for years said Section 702 is critical to thwarting terror attacks, stemming the flow of fentanyl into the US and stopping ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure.

The authority is now more critical than ever, officials say, amid the delicate ceasefire in the US war with Iran and a heightened threat environment.

Civil liberties groups on the left and the right, meanwhile, argue the surveillance authority risks infringing on Americans’ privacy. The program is currently warrantless, in large part because it is aimed at foreigners not Americans, but US citizens do get swept up in the surveillance when they are interacting with targets abroad.

The law, which is on the verge of expiration, has in recent months become embroiled in the broader Republican battle over the reach of the government’s surveillance powers.

And some Democrats who have previously supported the spy program are now concerned about renewing the it under a Trump administration that they do not trust, making the margins Republicans have to rely on even smaller.

At first, the Trump administration did not weigh in on how they wanted Republican lawmakers to handle the renewal of the law, allowing divisions to build and fester. The president and his supporters have previously conflated the law with other legal methods used to investigate Russian interference in US elections and allegations that people associated with the Trump campaign in 2016 were connected to those Russian efforts.

But earlier this month, President Donald Trump called for a clean reauthorization of th

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