The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 6-3 against the Democratic National Committee, finding that the Arizona GOP’s restrictive voting law does not violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The Court ruled that a law banning so-called “ballot harvesting,” collecting of ballots by a third party, is not illegal.
The Court also ruled that an Arizona law requiring ballots cast in the wrong precinct be thrown out is not illegal.
Democrats argued these laws were written with discriminatory intent and disadvantage minority voters.
The Court disagreed, also ruling that the laws were not drafted with discriminatory intent.
The New York Times adds that the “decision, in what may be a test of the Voting Rights Act, suggested that challenges to many new measures making it harder to vote may not be successful.”
The majority ruling was written by Justice Alito, with Justice Kagan writing the dissent. Justices Breyer and Sotomayor joined Kagan’s dissent.
The case is Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee and the Court’s opinion is here.
UPDATE –
Here’s how NPR explains the ruling:
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