A federal appellate court upheld a lower court’s decision dismissing an NAACP challenge to Alabama’s 2021 redistricting plan on Monday, holding that the advocacy group could not sue under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Rather, according to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, only the U.S. attorney general could maintain a lawsuit under that section of the VRA.
The decision left Democrats and the left-wing press deriding the decision as rolling back “increased minority power and representation in American politics,” while Republicans and conservative media outlets praised the decision as protecting election-integrity efforts. In reality, though, the opinion concerned solely a question of statutory interpretation and the role of the courts in creating claims omitted by Congress.
On these questions, the majority’s analysis proved solid. Yet, given that for approximately 50 years courts have assumed private parties could sue under Section 2 of the VRA, the split 2-1 decision seems likely to be reconsidered by the entire federal circuit court. If the holding stands, however, it will tee up the question of who can sue to enforce the VRA to the conservative-majority Supreme Court — unless Congress reclaims its legislative authority.
How We Got Here
“Quarreling over district lines begins like clockwork every ten years after the United States Census,” Monday’s majority opinion in NAACP v. Arkansas Board of Apportionment began. “In 2021, Arkansas experienced it firsthand when it created 11 majority-black districts out of 100 for electing members of its House of Representatives,” the majority opinion,
