New OMB race/ethnicity categories

March 28, 2024, 10:38 pmredistricting, Voting Rights Actcensus, raceJustin Levitt

Justin here. This is a really big deal: the federal government’s got new standards for collecting data on race and ethnicity. The Office of Management and Budget has a sneak preview today of tomorrow’s update of “Statistical Policy Directive No.… Continue reading

LDF 8th Circuit Amicus Brief in North Dakota Indian Country Case Argues that Section 1983 Gives Private Right of Action to Sue to Enforce Section 2 of VRA

March 26, 2024, 8:29 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Important brief given earlier developments.

“Racial Turnout Gap Has Widened With a Weakened Voting Rights Act, Study Finds”

March 2, 2024, 3:27 pmVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

NYT: When the Supreme Court knocked down a core part of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. argued that some of the law’s protections against racial discrimination were no longer necessary. He wrote that… Continue reading

“Republicans Hatched a Secret Assault on the Voting Rights Act in Washington State”

March 2, 2024, 3:26 pmredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

ProPublica: Republican Paul Graves’ work was about to come undone. In the wee hours of Nov. 15, 2021, he and his fellow Republican on Washington state’s independent redistricting commission had finally prevailed on their Democratic counterparts to agree to the … Continue reading

Federal Court Strikes Down Some, Upholds Other, Parts of Arizona Laws Requiring Proof of Citizenship to Register to Vote in State Elections and for State to Investigate Possible Noncitizen Registration

March 1, 2024, 11:38 amvoting, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

This is a complex ruling in a long-running case. (Via AZ Law). From the conclusion of the 109-page opinion: Non-US Plaintiffs may enforce § 10101 of the Civil Rights Act. Requiring individuals who register to vote using the State… Continue reading

Travis Crum: “Justice Alito Embraces a Retrogression Standard”

February 22, 2024, 6:19 pmSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

The following is a guest post from Travis Crum: Earlier this week, the Supreme Court denied cert in Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board, an important case about intentional discrimination and what facially neutral policies to… Continue reading

Digging in in the Badger State

February 11, 2024, 11:16 amredistrictingJustin Levitt

Justin here. There’s an oddity in the most recent round of Wisconsin’s redistricting travails. Democratic legislators (and later, the Democratic Governor) seem to be voting against an ostensible olive branch extended by the Republican legislative leadership. And I wonder if… Continue reading

Full Eighth Circuit, Over 3 Dissenting Judges, Won’t Rehear Case That Would End Most Cases Brought Under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act

January 30, 2024, 10:13 amVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

The court’s decision not to grant rehearing en banc, a concurrence by Judge Stras, and a dissent by Judge Colloton, is here. The original panel decision held that Section 2 of the VRA contains no private right of action, which… Continue reading

“The California Supreme Court Replaces Gingles Prong One”

January 26, 2024, 10:55 amVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

Jason D’Andrea and Bruce Wessel have posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum). Here is the abstract: This Essay analyzes Pico Neighborhood Association v. City of Santa Monica, the California Supreme Court’s first decision… Continue reading

“Your Guide to Four Emerging Threats to the Voting Rights Act”

January 26, 2024, 10:52 amVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

Bolts: After years of being whittled away by federal judges, the Voting Rights Act unexpectedly survived an existential threat in 2023 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld what’s left of the landmark civil rights law while striking down Alabama’s congressional… Continue reading

Breaking: Federal District Court Holds that Georgia’s New Congressional Redistricting Plan Complies with Remedial Order in Voting Rights Case, Rejecting Plaintiffs’ Objections

December 28, 2023, 9:54 amVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

You can find the opinion here. The court in a footnote leaves open the possibility that plaintiffs in a new case could make an argument that the failure to create a coalition district under the Legislature’s new plan in… Continue reading

“Republicans Launch Two-Pronged Attack Against Voting Rights Act”

December 27, 2023, 7:45 amUncategorizedVoting Rights Act; Section 2Spencer Overton

TPM: In their endless quest to further defang the Voting Rights Act and gerrymander their way into permanent control, Republican officials have launched a double-headed attack on the landmark civil rights law. The new attacks emerge as Republican politicians… Continue reading

RPV Near Me – Updated with Asian and American Indian/Alaska Native Estimates

December 12, 2023, 12:35 pmUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

This is a guest post by Ruth Greenwood, Director of the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School: With coalition claims in the election law news again, I wanted to flag an update to a resource that I shared… Continue reading

“Congress should preempt the Supreme Court on Section 2 of Voting Rights Act”

November 28, 2023, 9:19 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Maureen Edobor is a new election-law academic recently hired as an assistant professor at Washington and Lee. Here’s an excerpt from a piece she just published in The Hill, which criticizes the 8th Circuit’s holding that no private right of… Continue reading