The Eight Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled yesterday that private individuals and groups such as the NAACP do not have the ability to sue under a key section of the federal Voting Rights Act.
A panel of the court ruled 2-1 that only the U.S. attorney general can enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discriminatory voting practices such as racially gerrymandered districts.
Historically, private individuals and groups have frequently brought suits to enforce Section 2, and the Supreme Court is expected to eventually be called upon to rule on the matter.
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the right of private litigants to bring lawsuits alleging violations of Section 2, as have other circuit appellate courts, in dozens of cases over the course of decades.
In fact, election law experts say most challenges seeking to enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act are brought by private plaintiffs and that the Justice Department has limited resources to pursue such cases. Some voting rights experts also noted the apparent contradiction in an Alabama case decided by the Supreme Court last June and Monday’s ruling by the appellate court.
“It doesn’t seem to make sense,” said Jon Greenbaum, chief counsel for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “If the laws were that private parties couldn’t bring these cases, then the Alabama case would have never even gotten off the ground.”
Lawsuits under Section 2 have long been used to try to ensure that Black voters have adequate political representation in places with a long history of racism, including many Southern states. Racial gerrymandering has been used in drawing legislative and congressional districts to pack Black voters into a small number of districts or spread them out so their votes are diluted.
If only the U.S. attorney general is able to file such cases, it could sharply limit their number and make challenges largely dependent on partisan politics.
