Conservative justice hits brakes on major ruling that kneecapped voting rights

A conservative Supreme Court Justice put a pause on a lower court ruling that would have blocked people in some states from suing over voter discrimination based on race.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Brett Kavanaugh issued an administrative stay as part of an appeal from Native American tribes in North Dakota who allege the previous ruling "endangers a powerful tool to ensure equitable voting laws."

The case involves the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and Spirit Lake Tribe, which filed the suit in 2022 under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. They alleged that the new North Dakota voting map weakened the power of Native American voters by lumping them all into a single congressional district rather than in three districts. It means that the Court may take up the case, although Kavanaugh's stay didn't indicate when that could happen.

In an application requesting the stay, the tribes said, “They knee-cap Congress’s most important civil rights statute. That blow is especially harmful to Native Americans and these Plaintiffs in particular. North Dakota — like many states — has a long and sad history of official discrimination against Native Americans that persists to this day.”