Conservative circuit court attacks voting rights in latest ruling

Phil Roeder | Flickr.com

A conservative federal appeals court has moved to dramatically weaken the Voting Rights Act by ruling that private citizens and civil rights groups could no longer file lawsuits pertaining to one of its central provisions.

The decision, made by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, concluded that only the federal government can bring a legal challenge under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Section 2 has been fundamental to many critical legal challenges about civil and voting rights, including the recent case successfully argued before the Supreme Court against Alabama’s racially gerrymandered voting map.

The circuit court’s decision affirmed a February 2022 decision by a Trump-appointed district judge, Lee P. Rudofsky, who held that “only the attorney general of the United States may bring suit” to enforce Section 2.

In a 2-to-1 ruling, the circuit court concurred, finding that the law didn’t explicitly provide for a private right of action.

Others have cited remarks from the House and Senate Judiciary Committees from 1982, when the Voting Rights Act was amended. The committees issued a report declaring that “it is intended that citizens have a private cause of action to enforce their rights under Section 2.”

The decision will almost certainly be appealed to the United States Supreme Court.