Federal District Court Rules That Georgia’s Food and Water Ban for Those Waiting in Line to Vote Likely Violates the First Amendment, But Refuses Preliminary Injunction on Purcell Grounds
You can find the opinion at this link.
Category Archives: Voting Rights Act
Plaintiffs in Georgia Voting Rights Suit File Emergency Application to Vacate Stay with Supreme Court, Seeking District Elections for Public Service Commissioners. Case Raises Major Purcell Issue
11th Circuit, Over Strong Dissent by Judge Rosenbaum over Application of the Purcell Principle, Stays Order Delaying Georgia Public Utility Commission Elections with At-Large Plan Likely to Violate Voting Rights Act [corrected title]
You can find the opinion and dissent here.
In my view (consistent with the views in my article identifying the “Purcell principle”), Judge Rosenbaum’s integration of Purcell into the broader Nken standard for considering emergency relief is the right… Continue reading
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Proves Likely Violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in Lyman County Commissioner Redistricting
You can find the court’s order on the preliminary injunction at this link. The Tribe and individual voters are represented by the Native American Rights Fund, Public Counsel, the Law Office of Bryan Sells, the Law Office of… Continue reading
Georgia: “Federal judge rules PSC election ‘unlawfully dilutes’ Black voting power”
AJC:
A federal judge ruled Friday that Georgia must end statewide elections for the Public Service Commission because they discriminate against Black voters, a decision that could bar state officials from holding a November election to fill two seats.U.S.… Continue reading
Cert. Petition Asserts Racial Gerrymandering of PA State Legislative Districts
Here’s the question presented by the cert petition in Benninghoff v. 2021 Legislative Reapportionment Commission, brought by Pennsylvania’s Republican House Majority Leader:
Pennsylvania’s Legislative Reapportionment Commission admittedly made extensive use of race in constructing up to 14 state legislative… Continue reading
CLC on “The Supreme Court’s Role in the Degradation of U.S. Democracy”
From the first page of the hard-hitting report, available here, that Campaign Legal Center released today:
The time has come to talk about what the Supreme Court is doing to American democracy. For more than half a century—roughly during… Continue reading
“ND Judge Won’t Throw Out Tribes’ Redistricting Suit”
Law360: “A North Dakota federal judge on Thursday denied the state’s motion to dismiss a suit claiming its new legislative districts dilute Native Americans’ voting rights, ruling the tribes’ right to seek a remedy is embedded in case law.”… Continue reading
“The Supreme Court has chipped away at the Voting Rights Act for 9 years. This case could be the next blow.”
Zach Montellaro for Politico:
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been slowly whittled away over the last decade by the Supreme Court — and a case set to be heard in the fall could shrink the protections offered by… Continue reading
“This is What Nine Years Without the Voting Rights Act Looks Like”
Ryan Suto at FairVote:
Without the protection of the Act, shredded by the Court in 2013, 21 states enacted new voting restrictions ahead of the 2016 election, and since the 2020 election at least 18 states have passed new… Continue reading
“Supreme Court Spurns Texas GOP Lawmakers on Voting-Map Testimony”
Bloomberg Law–The U.S. Supreme Court has rebuffed a request to protect “three Republican lawmakers from being questioned under oath in lawsuits by the Biden administration and civil rights groups that claim new voting maps in Texas are racially discriminatory.”… Continue reading
“A GOP power grab shatters 30 years of political progress for Black voters in Galveston County “
Texas Tribune reports that “Republicans dismantled the only Galveston County commissioners precinct in which voters of color held political clout.”
“Carver Park in Texas City, created during segregation, is considered the first African American county park in the state. It… Continue reading
VRA’s Effectiveness & Impact of Judicial Nullification of Preclearance
New research exploring impact of 1965 Voting Rights Act finds it reduced income inequality between Blacks and Whites. Since Shelby County v. Holder (2013), counties previously covered by Section 5 the VRA saw a decrease in public sector wages for… Continue reading
“Stealing the Crown Jewels: Justice Alito purports to place the future of abortion in the hands of women voters—despite abetting the disenfranchisement of Black and Latina women”
Sherrilyn Ifill for the NYRB:
Since then, Black women have had to overcome an accelerating and complex array of voter suppression schemes, which have proliferated with alarming speed. Even as the Dobbs draft circulates, the ability of Black and… Continue reading