Shocking!

A bipartisan bill to extend the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a crown jewel of the U.S. civil rights era, was unexpectedly and indefinitely delayed on Wednesday due to objections by some southern Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The controversy centered on extra scrutiny faced by nine states in the U.S. South with a legacy of civil rights violations, and on requirements that some districts supply bilingual ballots to voters whose English is poor.

House Republican leaders, who had expected a straightforward vote with support from both Republicans and Democrats on Wednesday afternoon, instead indefinitely put off consideration of the bill after a furor in a routine weekly party meeting in the morning.