Supreme Court's voting rights ruling casts shadow on future legal battles

Washington — The Supreme Court's blockbuster ruling this month that placed new limits on a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act could hamper efforts by Democrats and voting rights advocates in the courts to derail new voting rules enacted by Republican-led states and force them to mount their battles in other arenas.

In its decision, the Supreme Court upheld two voting rules from the battleground state of Arizona. One rule bans third-party collection of mail-in ballots, or so-called "ballot harvesting," and a second discards ballots cast in the wrong precinct. In the 37-page opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, the six-justice majority laid out several factors for lower courts to consider in future challenges to voting rules under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting practices that discriminate on the basis of race. These "guideposts," as Alito called them, make it more difficult for voting rights activists and groups to succeed in invalidating more stringent rules that have already been enacted or are being considered by GOP-led states, which activists argue erect barriers to voting.