Justice Kavanaugh: The Voting Rights Act Means What It Says. No Racist Dilution Efforts.

The Supremes have (whilst I was off-grid) agreed to hear a case enforcing Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Justice Kavanaugh was the gate-keeper that let it trough. That decision is correct. [To understand what is at stake, read the NAACP filing below.]

Here is that amicus filing, from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund:

…To evaluate the existence of an implied private right of action, the Court looks to the plain text to see if Congress intended an implied right of action. See Alexander v. Sandoval, 532 U.S. 275, 286 (2001) (“The judicial task is to interpret the statute Congress has passed to determine whether it displays an intent to create… a private remedy.”). The VRA’s plain text leaves absolutely no doubt there is an implied right of action both because of the clear rights-protecting language of § 2 as well as because of all the other parts of the VRA show that Congress intended private enforcement. Significantly, Morse unequivocally found that the VRA’s structure displays an intent to create private remedies for violations of § 2. While the Court disagreed about the private enforceability of § 10, all nine Justices in Morse agreed that § 3 “explicitly recognizes that private individuals can sue under the Act.” 517 U.S. at 289 (Thomas, J., dissenting, with Rehnquist, Scalia, Kennedy, JJ.) (emphasis added) (cleaned up); see id. at 234 (plurality op., Stevens, J., with one other justices) (same); id. at 240 (Breyer, J., concurring with two other justices) (same). This is because Congress amended § 3 to make clear that any “aggrieved person” can enforce the VRA. 52 U.S.C. § 10302(a)–(c). The amendments “provide the same remedies to private parties as had formerly been available to the Attorney General alone.” Morse, 517 U.S. at 233 (plurality op.). Section 3 makes “what was once implied now explicit: private parties can sue to enforce the VRA.” Ala. NAACP, 949 F.3d at 651.

Second, the Eighth Circuit erred in only cursorily considering the fact that § 2 was enacted pursuant to Congress’s power to enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Milligan, 599 U.S. at 41….

There you have it. The good guys will win another one. Out.

नमस्ते