Documenting Discrimination in Voting: Judicial Findings Under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act Since 1982

Abstract

This paper examines 331 lawsuits, encompassing 763 decisions, that addressed claims under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act since 1982. It finds that plaintiffs succeeded in 37% of these lawsuits, and that they were more likely to prevail in regions subject to the temporary provisions of the VRA (known as Section 5 or pre-clearance) than elsewhere. This study also documents the types of electoral practices challenged in Section 2 cases, and the extent to which courts hearing these cases documented any of the factors listed as probative in the Senate Report accompanying the 1982 amendments to Section 2 and those described by the Supreme Court in Thornburg v. Gingles.

Keywords: Voting Rights Act, minority voting rights, Election Law