The Supreme Court has acted in a Voting Rights Act case brought by Native American tribes, saying the closely watched provision needs to be reconsidered after the Supreme Court weakened the civil rights-era law.
Washington– The Supreme Court acted in a Voting Rights Act case brought by Native American tribes on Monday, saying the closely watched ruling needed to be reconsidered after the high court weakened the civil rights-era law.
The justices ordered lower courts to take another look at the matter decision Which was against the tribes and undermined the main enforcement mechanism: lawsuits from voters and advocacy groups.
Advocacy groups are key players because they bring most of the lawsuits filed under provisions of the Voting Rights Act known as Section 2.
But in the North Dakota case brought by two Native American tribesthe Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals It ruled that only the federal government could bring suit to enforce the law.
decision It conflicts with decades of case law. supreme court He was banned in JulyAllowing the tribes’ favorite maps to remain in place temporarily.
However, the Court of Appeals’ finding has been cited elsewhere, where Mississippi made a similar argument in another appeal of the state’s legislative map. The court also sent the case back for reconsideration on Monday.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, writing that both sentences should have been overturned.
At the same time, the conservative majority has already diluted enforcement power through its policy April decision That hit Louisiana’s majority-black congressional district and made future cases more difficult to win.
In that case, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled that the map relied too heavily on race with a district intended to give black voters a chance to elect a candidate of their choice. The decision effectively limited voting rights claims to maps intentionally designed to discriminate, a very high bar.