Overturning decades of tradition, the Supreme Court in 2022 let Alabama use voting districts that violated the law and diluted the voting power of Black citizens.
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Historically, federal courts prioritized voting rights and legal congressional districts for upcoming elections above all other concerns. But the Supreme Court changed that in 2022.
Volunteers at the 14th District Democratic headquarters for the midterm election in Detroit, Mich., on Nov 8, 2022. The 14th District map must now be redrawn.
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The ruling could make it impossible for groups like the ACLU to file lawsuits to protect people’s right to vote – significantly changing how the Voting Rights Act has been interpreted so far.
Evan Milligan, plaintiff in an Alabama case that could have far-reaching effects on minority voting power across the U.S., speaks outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 4, 2022.
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Since 2020, Alabama lawmakers have failed to draw political districts that give Black voters an equal chance of selecting political candidates that represent their interests.
North Carolina’s election districts have been under debate and review for years.
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It’s official: State courts can review lawmakers’ election-district boundary decisions to ensure they comply with state law.
A group of voters lining up outside the polling station, a small Sugar Shack store, on May 3, 1966, in Peachtree, Ala., after the Voting Rights Act was passed the previous year.
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Any behavior reasonably calculated to dissuade a person from participating in an election is intimidation.
Voters line up at a polling station in Houston to cast their ballots during the Texas presidential primary on March 3, 2020.
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A 2014 US Presidential Commission set a guideline that voters should not have to wait more than 30 minutes to cast their ballots. In some voting districts, it’s taking longer than an hour.
Mississippi state legislators review an option for redrawing the state’s voting districts at the state Capitol in Jackson on March 29, 2022.
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A ruling by the US Supreme Court to allow unlawful maps to be used in the midterm elections will affect who gets elected to the House of Representatives and may determine control of Congress.
Not every vote is counted equal.
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Alabama will be allowed to keep a congressional map that critics say disadvantages Black voters. That does not bode well for 2022 midterms, argues a law scholar.
Voting rights supporters at a rally in Atlanta on Jan. 11, 2022.
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Access to voting materials in a citizen’s native language helps boost involvement and voter turnout.
New immigrants to Canada, including Syrian-born Tareq Hadhad (centre) who founded the company Peace by Chocolate in Antigonish, N.S., swear allegiance at an Oath of Citizenship ceremony in Halifax in January 2020.
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Following the Sept. 20 federal election, an important question must be asked: How is the Canadian electoral process accommodating the country’s increasing linguistic diversity?
Activists at a voting rights rally near the U.S. Capitol on Aug. 3, 2021.
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Not all new laws labeled “voter suppression laws” are, in fact, voter suppression laws. An election law expert takes a closer look.
The Supreme Court waited until the final day of its 2020-2021 term, July 1, 2021, to issue two controversial decisions, including one that may dramatically limit voting rights in the US.
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The court upheld two Arizona laws that limit when, where and how people can vote.The ruling further guts the Voting Rights Act at a time when many US states are passing more restrictive voting rules.
The Maricopa County Election Department counts ballots in Phoenix on Nov. 5, 2020. Arizona’s election laws are the subject of a pending Supreme Court decision.
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In Brnovich v. DNC, the court will decide whether two Arizona rules unfairly hurt poor, minority and rural voters. The ruling could determine the fate of many states’ restrictive new voting laws.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and fellow Democrats address reporters on H.R. 1 at the Capitol in Washington on March 3, 2021.
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As GOP-run statehouses across the country tighten voting restrictions, a bill in Congress would, its Democratic sponsors say, undo more than 15 years of moves to make voting harder.
Rivko Knox, a volunteer with the League of Women Voters in Phoenix, and other voters sued Arizona over a law that bans the third-party collection of early mail-in ballots. The issue is now before the Supreme Court.
AP Photo/Anita Snow
The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether a ban on the third-party collection of mail-in ballots is legal. The practice is allowed in 26 states.
Armed demonstrators attend a rally in front of the Michigan Capitol in Lansing to protest the governor’s stay-at-home order on May 14, 2020.
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Everyone’s saying it: ‘Democracy is fragile’ in the United States. But a political science scholar says that has always been the case.
A lot of interests want to influence the cases that come before the Supreme Court and how they’re decided.
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Special interests use the court as a public policy battleground. Here’s a rundown of how that works and which groups are likely to appear before a conservative court with Amy Coney Barrett on it.