All posts by Rick Hasen

Breaking: Eighth Circuit, on 2-1 Vote, Holds Private Plaintiffs Cannot Enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act through a Section 1983 Action, a Ruling Which if Applied Nationally Would Devastate Voting Rights Act Enforcement in the United States

Voting Rights Act
The Eighth Circuit had earlier reached the remarkably wrong conclusion that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act contains no private right of action (meaning that only the U.S. Department of Justice, and not private plaintiffs, can sue for violations… Continue reading

“Hispanic and Latino Voters’ Declining Political Cohesion: A Thorn in the Side of Thornburg v. Gingles’s Framework for Evaluating Claims Under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act”

Voting Rights Act
Jacob Maguire has posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This paper argues that, based on recent electoral trends, the United States’ Hispanic and Latino community may no longer constitute a “politically cohesive” minority group under the U.S.… Continue reading