In Arkansas State Conference NAACP v. Arkansas Board of Apportionment, the 8th Circuit became the first federal appeals court to rule that private plaintiffs cannot enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In doing so, the court left open the question whether private plaintiffs could enforce Section 2 through an alternative civil rights statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1983. In this case, a divided panel on the 8th Circuit has held that plaintiffs may not use Section 1983, either. If the holding stands, Section 2 of the VRA will be functionally out of reach for voters across the 8th Circuit in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. On behalf of the NAACP Arkansas State Conference and the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, the ACLU and ACLU of Arkansas has filed a brief supporting the plaintiffs’ request that the full Eighth Circuit rehear and correct this decision.

Colorado Springs’s unusually-timed elections suppress voter turnout—disproportionately, among the City’s Black and Hispanic population. This federal court lawsuit challenges the City’s election timing for violating our clients’ right to vote free from denial of abridgment on account of race under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Dodge City’s (Kansas) at-large method of election for its city commission violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (“VRA”) by diluting the political power of the city’s Latine community. The at-large method of election also violates the Fourteenth Amendment because it is operated with a discriminatory purpose.

The ACLU and civil rights groups filed a lawsuit against Georgia’s newly drawn maps which deny Black residents an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect candidates of choice.