The Supreme Court’s surprisingly timid new Voting Rights Act decisions

Key Points:

• The Supreme Court declined to make a ruling on Justice Neil Gorsuch’s proposal to restrict private lawsuits under the Voting Rights Act (VRA), instead asking lower courts to reconsider the issue, leaving the future of the law uncertain.
• The Voting Rights Act, once a powerful tool against racial discrimination in voting, has been significantly weakened by recent Supreme Court decisions, notably Shelby County v. Holder (2013) and Louisiana v. Callais (2026), which removed key provisions like preclearance and protections against discriminatory effects without proven intent.
• Justice Gorsuch’s concurring opinion in Brnovich v. DNC (2021) argued that the VRA does not authorize private lawsuits, a stance that, if adopted, would severely limit enforcement of voting rights protections, potentially leaving only the federal government able to sue.
• The Court’s recent rulings have effectively reduced the VRA’s independent power, aligning it more closely with the 15th Amendment, which prohibits intentional racial discrimination in voting but is harder to enforce due to the need to prove discriminatory intent.
• By postponing a decision on whether private plaintiffs can sue under the VRA, the Supreme Court has left unresolved the critical question of how voting rights laws will be enforced in the future, raising concerns about further erosion of protections against racial discrimination in voting.