07/01/2021

SCOTUS Upholds Arizona's Restrictive Voting Laws

A lower court found them unfair to minorities

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) upheld two Arizona voting restrictions that a lower court had said discriminated against minority voters, a ruling that suggests that it will be harder to challenge a spate of new laws passed by state legislatures in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote the opinion in the 6-to-3 ruling, with the court’s conservative majority in charge. The court’s liberals joined an opinion by Justice Elena Kagan protesting that the decision weakens the shield provided by the Voting Rights Act (VRA), first passed in 1965 to forbid laws that result in discrimination based on race.

Both supporters and detractors of the decision said that it would probably strengthen the hand of state legislatures that say tighter voting laws are necessary to combat election fraud and that it would make it more difficult for challengers to eliminate laws they contend fall most heavily on minority voters.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.