Supreme Court justice pauses ruling weakening Voting Rights Act
Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh on Wednesday paused a federal appeals court ruling that bars individuals in some states from filing lawsuits claiming discrimination based on the landmark Voting Rights Act.
The administrative stay will allow the Supreme Court more time to consider whether to take up an appeal by Native American tribes in North Dakota who claim the ruling endangers a powerful tool to ensure equitable voting laws. It’s unclear when the high court might issue a decision to hear the case.
“They knee-cap Congress’s most important civil rights statute,” the tribes wrote in their application asking the high court to intervene. “That blow is especially harmful to Native Americans and these Plaintiffs in particular. North Dakota—like many states—has a long and sad history of official discrimination against Native Americans that persists to this day.”
The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and Spirit Lake Tribe filed the lawsuit in 2022 under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, claiming a new North Dakota voting map diluted the power of Indigenous voters by reducing from three to one the number of seats they had “an equal opportunity to elect.”
A federal judge ruled for the tribes, but a divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit overturned that decision. The panel did not rule on the substance of the tribes’ arguments but instead found that individuals had no right to bring challenges under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which bars racially discriminatory voting laws. The panel found only the Justice Department can bring such lawsuits.
The tribes said individuals have brought more than 400 challenges to voting laws under the provision since 1982. The 8th Circuit, which covers North Dakota, South Dakota, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska, is the only one in the nation that has found individuals cannot sue under Section 2.
The 8th Circuit’s ruling could force a Native American woman serving in North Dakota’s House of Representatives to lose her seat. Collette Brown, the legislator, is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit brought by the tribes.
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