• Feb 25, 2022

U.S. judges are narrowing voting protections. Some fear lasting damage

February 25, 2022
NPR

“They are teeing up statutory and constitutional questions for the Court with the justifiable belief that the Court will welcome the narrow interpretation and the opportunity to further narrow the statute,” said Guy-Uriel Charles, an election law professor at Harvard Law School.

. . .

Then, in July 2021, the high court made it more difficult for people to sue under Section 2, which bars states from passing laws that result in “a denial or abridgement” on voters “on account of race or color,” by requiring plaintiffs to show they’d shouldered a significant burden or faced other hurdles.

Charles, of Harvard Law School, said that ruling is a clear signal of how the Supreme Court will review future voting rights challenges.

. . .

Charles, of Harvard, however, said a chill wind is blowing from the federal courts.

“I would be very surprised if the Court does not interpret the statute in such a way as to take away the authority of states to draw majority-minority districts under the Act, except in cases in which the states have engaged in blatantly clear racial discrimination,” he said.

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