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Federal Court Deals Devastating Blow To Voting Rights Act

A fed­er­al appeals court issued a rul­ing Monday that could gut the Voting Rights Act, say­ing only the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment — not pri­vate cit­i­zens or civ­il rights groups — can sue under a cru­cial sec­tion of the land­mark civ­il rights law. The deci­sion of the 8th Circuit will almost cer­tain­ly be appealed to the Supreme Court. But should it stand, it would mark a dra­mat­ic roll­back of the enforce­ment of the law that led to increased minor­i­ty rep­re­sen­ta­tion in American politics.
The appel­late court ruled that there is no “pri­vate right of action” for Section 2 of the law — which pro­hibits vot­ing prac­tices that dis­crim­i­nate based on race.
That, in prac­tice, would severe­ly lim­it the scope of pro­tec­tions in the act. For decades, pri­vate par­ties — includ­ing civ­il rights groups, indi­vid­ual vot­ers, and polit­i­cal par­ties — have brought Section 2 chal­lenges on every­thing from redis­trict­ing to vot­er ID requirements.

Private par­ties file the vast major­i­ty of Voting Rights Act cas­es. For instance, the case that prompt­ed the Supreme Court ear­li­er this year to strike down Alabama’s con­gres­sion­al map was orig­i­nal­ly filed by a coali­tion of civ­il rights groups.
Monday’s deci­sion upheld a 2022 rul­ing from U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky, an Arkansas fed­er­al judge appoint­ed by for­mer Republican President Donald Trump that only the U.S. attor­ney gen­er­al is empow­ered to file law­suits under sec­tion 2 of the Voting Rights Act. That pro­vi­sion pro­hibits vot­ing rules that are racial­ly discriminatory.
In a 2 – 1 deci­sion, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals said the text of the Voting Rights Act does not lay out a “pri­vate right of action,” even though courts, includ­ing the Supreme Court, have tak­en on such cas­es for decades.
“Assuming their exis­tence, and even dis­cussing them, is dif­fer­ent from actu­al­ly decid­ing that a pri­vate right of action exists,” Circuit Judge David Stras wrote for the major­i­ty. Stras, a Trump appointee, was joined by Circuit Judge Raymond Gruender, who was appoint­ed by for­mer Republican President George W. Bush.
In a dis­sent, Chief Judge Lavenski Smith, also a Bush appointee, said he would have fol­lowed exist­ing prece­dent unless Congress or the Supreme Court said otherwise.(Politico)