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On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court intervened in a pivotal Voting Rights Act case involving Native American tribes, instructing lower courts to reassess a previous ruling. The high court’s recent decision to weaken the historic Civil Rights-era legislation prompted this move.
The Supreme Court has tasked lower courts with revisiting a judgment that had initially disadvantaged the tribes by undermining a critical enforcement mechanism. Typically, lawsuits initiated by voters and advocacy groups play a vital role in enforcing the Voting Rights Act, particularly under Section 2.
In a contentious North Dakota case, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had previously ruled that only the federal government possesses the authority to file lawsuits under this law, contradicting decades of established legal precedents.
In response, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked this decision in July, allowing the tribes’ preferred electoral maps to remain in effect while the case undergoes further review.
The decision conflicted with decades of case law. The Supreme Court blocked it in July, allowing the tribes’ preferred maps to temporarily stay in place.
The appeals court’s finding has nevertheless been cited elsewhere, with Mississippi making a similar argument in another appeal over its state legislative map. The court also sent that case back for reconsideration on Monday. The decision jeopardizes three new majority-Black state legislative districts, though the effects likely won’t be felt until 2027, said Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the decisions, writing that both rulings should have been reversed.
The conservative majority, meanwhile, has already diluted enforcement power with their April decision that struck down a majority Black congressional district in Louisiana and made future cases much harder to win.
In that case, the high court’s conservative majority ruled that map relied too heavily on race with a district aimed at giving Black voters a chance to elect a candidate of their choice. The decision effectively limited Voting Rights claims to maps that are intentionally designed to discriminate, a very high standard.
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