[EL] before Frank v Walker (Oct 9 2014), when is the last time US Supreme Court reversed a lower court and expanded voting rights?

[Foley, Edward]

LULAC v. Perry (2006), to be sure, involved vote dilution, not vote denial, but it was a significant protection of the voting rights of the Latino voters in Laredo, Texas (in its section 2 VRA holding), or at least that’s how the five justices in the majority understood their decision to reverse the lower court.

At the risk of controversy, think about whether Bush v. Gore (2000), meets the test insofar as it reversed a lower court to protect against the unequal treatment of similarly situated voters; to be sure, it didn’t expand the counting of any previously uncounted ballots, much less enable more voters to be able to cast ballots who otherwise were unable to do so.  But it was a more robust protection of the right of identical ballots (and their voters)  to equal treatment than the lower court was willing to provide.

[The Ohio State University]
Edward B. Foley
Director, Election Law @ Moritz
Charles W. Ebersold and Florence Whitcomb Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law
Moritz College of Law
614-292-4288

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Flavio Komuves
Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2014 6:48 PM
To: Richard Winger; law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] before Frank v Walker (Oct 9 2014), when is the last time US Supreme Court reversed a lower court and expanded voting rights?

Richard, you ask a very interesting question.  Accepting your view of Inter Tribal Council, the other only case since 1997 I  see meeting your criteria is Rice v. Cayetano (2000).


This message may contain confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient of this message please delete it and notify me at 609-216-5014. Flavio Komuves

Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S™III, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

-------- Original message --------
From: Richard Winger
Date:10/19/2014 15:20 (GMT-05:00)
To: law-election at uci.edu<mailto:law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: [EL] before Frank v Walker (Oct 9 2014), when is the last time US Supreme Court reversed a lower court and expanded voting rights?

On Oct 9, 2014, the US Supreme Court reversed the 7th circuit and said the Wisconsin govt photo-ID requirement should not be in effect for the Nov 4, 2014 election.  I am trying to remember the last time the US Supreme Court reversed a lower court and expanded voting rights.  By "voting rights", I mean the ability of individuals to register to vote, or to cast a ballot, or to run for office.  In 1995 the US Supreme Court expanded the list of people who can run for office in US Term Limits v Thornton.  In 1997 in Chandler v Miller the Court struck down a law requiring candidates for state office to get tested for illegal drugs.

Are those the last two times the US Supreme Court reversed a lower court in the direction of more protection for voters or candidates??  What am I forgetting?

I don't think Arizona v Inter Tribal Council of Arizona (2013) counts, because the opinion set forth a road map for Kansas and Arizona to force the federal government to alter the federal voter registration postcard so as to give those two states what they want.  In effect the court punted, and we are still waiting to see the outcome in the 10th circuit.

Richard Winger
415-922-9779
PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
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