It’s an important day for the right to vote, as US Supreme Court justices will consider today whether they will enforce two Republican-backed voting restrictions in Arizona in a case that could further weaken the Voting Rights Act, a landmark 1965 federal law which prohibited racial discrimination in voting. .
The important voting lawsuit comes before judges at a time when Republicans in numerous states are pushing for new restrictions after former President Donald Trump made false claims about widespread fraud in the Nov. 3 election he lost to Joe Biden.
Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley report to Reuters that the judges will hear arguments in appeals from Arizona Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich and the state Republican Party of a lower court ruling that the voting restrictions in question were disproportionately burdened with black, Spanish and Native American voters. .
One of the measures made it a crime to provide another’s early round of voting to election officials other than family members or caregivers. The other disqualified ballots are personally cast in a different district from that to which a voter is assigned.
Community activists sometimes engage in collecting ballots to facilitate voting and increase turnout. The practice, which critics call “ballot harvesting,” is legal in most states, with varying restrictions. Voting advocates said voters sometimes inadvertently vote for the wrong district, with the assigned polling station sometimes not being the closest to the voter’s home.
A broad Supreme Court ruling, of which the 6-3 Conservative majority is made up of three Trump-appointed judges, who endorse the restrictions, could hurt the voting rights law by making it harder to prove violations. Such a ruling could affect the 2022 midterm elections in which Republicans seek to regain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
A decision must be made at the end of June.
The problem in the Arizona case is Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits any rule that leads to voting discrimination “based on race or color”. This provision was the main tool used to demonstrate that vocal cords discriminate against minorities since the court stripped another section of the statute in 2013 that determines which states with a history of racial discrimination need federal approval to change the voting laws.
The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals last year found Arizona’s restrictions in violation of the Voting Rights Act, although they remained in effect for the November 3 election. The 9th Circuit also found that “false race-based claims of ballot collection fraud” were used to persuade Arizona lawmakers to enact that restriction with discriminatory intent, in violation of the prohibition of the US Constitution. to refuse voting rights based on race.