Native American advocates say a Supreme Court ruling this week that deemed racial redistricting under the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional significantly weakens protections for Native voters.
The Voting Rights Act historically served to protect minority groups from racial discrimination in voting practices. In a landmark decision on Wednesday, the Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana redistricting map that created a second majority-Black district.
Jacqueline De Leon, senior attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, said the court issued a backward analysis, blurring the line between racial and political discrimination, and essentially condoning bias on the basis of politics.
"The outcome is going to be discrimination where Native and minority voters are blocked out of any representation," she said, "and that really is what the Voting Rights Act was designed to prevent."
Legal experts have warned that the ruling could potentially influence a Supreme Court petition from North Dakota tribes that would determine whether private citizens and groups have the right to sue over discriminatory voting maps. The case challenges a precedent that could limit private enforcement of voting rights nationwide.
North Dakota's strict voter ID law has made voting difficult for Native Americans and some tribes have gone to court over redistricting matters.
De Leon said factors like far travel distances to polling locations, lack of mail service and residential addresses, and at-large election systems that prevent Native-preferred candidates from winning representation have also served as ongoing barriers.
"It's easy to be defensive and think that people are crying uncle when there's not actually discrimination," she said. "But if you look at communities and see that they don't actually have any representation, that's got to strike you as wrong. That's got to strike you as un-American."
De Leon argued that the Supreme Court ruling has also implemented a new requirement that plaintiffs need to prove intentional discrimination, which she said is almost impossible to do.
"People aren't in the business of saying, 'I'm doing this to be racist,' but rather actions usually prove what their intent is," she said. "It's going to make bringing these cases substantially more difficult, and I think that was by design."
Florida Republicans also pushed through a new congressional map on Wednesday, just hours after the Supreme Court ruling came down. Critics have said the move could give the GOP a significant advantage in the November midterm elections.
