WASHINGTON -- Rep. John Lewis praised Attorney General Eric Holder's push to place the state of Texas under pre-clearance requirements for voting laws under Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act. In an interview with the AJC today, the Atlanta Democrat said he thinks North Carolina should be next.

"I'm very encouraged to see the Attorney General and the Department of Justice take this position. I think it's long overdue. ... Without Section 4 I think it's so fitting and appropriate for the Department of Justice to take the action. And I wish they would take a serious look at what has happened in the state of North Carolina right now also."

Since the Supreme Court struck down the Section 4 formula of the Voting Rights Act which put mostly Southern states -- including Georgia -- under federal "pre-clearance" for new voting laws, any state can move forward with a voting law without seeking federal approval. They can still be hit with a lawsuit under Section 2 if the law is discriminatory, a protection that many argue is sufficient.

Texas moved swiftly after last month's court decision to put its disputed Voter ID law into place. The DOJ is now siding with the plaintiffs in a case involving redistricting maps, requesting pre-clearance for the whole state.

North Carolina's Republican-dominated legislature has drawn scrutiny -- and mass protests -- for several initiatives, including a slew of new voting restrictions. The bills include a strict Voter ID law, slashing early voting, not allowing parents to claim college students as dependents if they vote where they go to school and other measures that could harm turnout among historically Democratic constituencies.

Section 3, which Holder is pursuing, allows federal courts to place certain jurisdictions under pre-clearance for new voting laws if they have shown a pattern of intentional discrimination. It's a high bar to prove.

Lewis, the celebrated civil rights movement veteran, has been a force behind a Congressional effort to rewrite the pre-clearance formula. I asked him if a beefed-up Section 3 could be a potential compromise, in which courts could force certain areas into pre-clearance without Congress having to designate them.

"I don't want to get out front of what some of my colleagues of both sides of the aisle are talking about," Lewis said. "We've got to do it in a bipartisan fashion."

Here's some more background on Holder's speech in Philadelphia today from the AP:

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday that the Justice Department is opening a new front in the battle for voter protections, a response to the Supreme Court ruling that he said dealt a major setback to the Voting Rights Act.

In a speech to the National Urban League in Philadelphia, Holder said that as its first move, the department is asking a federal court in San Antonio to require the state of Texas to obtain advance approval before putting future political redistricting changes in place.

The attorney general called the Voting Rights Act "the cornerstone of modern civil rights law" and said that "we cannot allow the slow unraveling of the progress that so many, throughout history, have sacrificed so much to achieve."

The Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, threw out the most powerful part of the landmark Voting Rights Act, the law that became a major turning point in black Americans' struggle for equal rights and political power.

The move in Texas is the Justice Department's first action to further safeguard voting rights following the Supreme Court decision on June 25, said Holder, "but it will not be our last."

"Even as Congress considers updates to the Voting Rights Act in light of the court's ruling, we plan, in the meantime, to fully utilize the law's remaining sections to ensure that the voting rights of all American citizens are protected," Holder said.