The Supreme Court has allowed a lower court ruling to stand that strikes down a central enforcement tool of the Voting Rights Act — one that had protected voters with disabilities or who can’t read or write across seven states.
The justices left the ruling in place without explanation, as the court often does when declining to disturb a lower court’s decision. The practical effect is that a legal mechanism used to challenge voting discrimination on behalf of those voters is no longer available in those states.
The Voting Rights Act has long included provisions meant to ensure that voters who are blind, have physical disabilities, or are otherwise unable to read a ballot can get the assistance they need and aren’t turned away or intimidated. Enforcement of those provisions has historically relied on the tool the lower court has now invalidated.
Seven states are affected. The court’s action Sunday, June 22, leaves that ruling intact while any further legal challenge would have to work through the courts on a longer timeline.
Civil rights attorneys and disability advocates had pushed the Supreme Court to step in, arguing that stripping the enforcement mechanism leaves a vulnerable class of voters without a practical legal remedy when their rights are violated. The court declined to act.
Whether the affected states will face any new federal or state-level legal challenges — or whether Congress might move to shore up the statute — hasn’t been addressed.
