Supreme Court tells lower courts to take new look at 2 voting rights cases

Politics Supreme Court tells lower courts to take new look at 2 major voting rights cases By Melissa Quinn Melissa Quinn Senior Reporter, Politics Melissa Quinn is a senior reporter for CBSNews.com, where she covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts. Read Full Bio Melissa Quinn May 18, 2026 / 10:16 AM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday told lower courts to take another look at a pair of cases involving whether private individuals and groups can sue to enforce a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that prohibits discriminatory voting practices.In brief orders, the high court set aside lower court decisions and sent the cases back for further proceedings in light of its landmark ruling last month weakening Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.At issue in the disputes is who can bring lawsuits in federal court to address potential violations of Section 2. The cases are the latest test of the 1965 law and threaten to sharply curtail who can sue to enforce Section 2. Future decisions embracing those limits could further undermine the landmark voting law, long considered the crown jewel of the civil rights movement.The latest court fight involving Section 2 arrived at the Supreme Court through two different cases challenging legislative maps drawn in Mississippi and North Dakota after the 2020 Census as violations of Section 2.The case from Mississippi was brought by the state's chapter of the NAACP and 14 voters, and in the North Dakota dispute, it was the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, the Spirit Lake Tribe and three Native American voters who sued. Both sets of plaintiffs prevailed before district courts. North Dakota officials appealed the lower court's ruling to the U.S. Appeals for the 8th Circuit, which found that Section 2 cannot be enforced by private plaintiffs suing under a different civil rights law, known as S...