On January 5, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in Farrakhan v. Gregoire that Washington state's felon disenfranchisement law violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act given the overwhelming evidence of racial bias in the state's criminal justice system. The American Civil Liberties Union filed an amicus brief in the case, cited by the court in its ruling, arguing that, given this racial bias, the law has a racially discriminatory effect on minorities and results in the denial of their right to vote purely on the basis of their race or color.