„The Court has damaged a statute designed to bring about the end of discrimination in voting,“ Justice Elena Kagan said.
The United States Supreme Court has upheld two controversial election laws in Arizona that voting rights advocates say will hurt the ability of voters in marginalized communities to cast their ballots. Beyond its impact on Arizona voting laws, however, the case was also seen by many as a test of the remaining powers of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and whether the Court would uphold one of its provisions to protect voters of color in that state and elsewhere in the future. The 6-3 decision, voted along partisan lines, in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee examined two types of voting restrictions: the first requiring election officials to discard ballots cast by voters who showed up at the wrong precincts; and the second making it a crime for anyone other than family members, caregivers or election officials to turn in a person’s absentee ballot to polling places. The two changes to voting rules were initially challenged in 2016. Last year, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the law was unconstitutional.
