AP offers this report on today’s argument in the NAMUDNO case. The lower court panel sounds very likely to reject plaintiff’s constitutional attack on the renewed section 5 of the VRA.
For what it is worth, here is what I wrote on Sept. 12, 2006 (almost exactly a year ago), when this three-judge panel was named: ‘A three judge court has been named: district judge Paul Friedman, district judge Emmet Sullivan, and DC Circuit judge David Tatel. [note: an earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to Judge Sullivan as being on the DC Circuit] This is likely a good draw for defenders of the constitutionality of section 5. But I don’t think the lower court opinion is going to matter very much, however it comes out. This issue—either in this case or one of the others being filed—will be resolved when the Supreme Court resolves it.”