(The Center Square) — A New York judge has struck down a state law that allows citizens to sue the government over election rules that marginalize racial and ethnic minority groups, saying the special protections are unconstitutional.
The ruling by state Supreme Court Justice Maria Vazquez-Doles in Orange County declares that New York’s Voting Rights Act of 2022 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and conflicts with U.S. Supreme Court rulings on race-based protections.
The judge’s decision also tossed out a lawsuit filed in March by a group of Black and Hispanic voters who challenged the Town of Newburgh’s process for electing town board members, which they claimed violated the voting law.
In her ruling, Vazquez-Doles said the state’s voting rights law were too broad in scope and went beyond what U.S. Supreme Court precedent allows when considering vote dilution cases.
“Where race or national origin is the basis for unequal treatment by the State, as here, the NYVRA must satisfy strict scrutiny, i.e. it must both serve a compelling state interest and be narrowly tailored,” Vazquez-Doles wrote in the 25-page ruling. “The NYVRA does not satisfy either part of that exacting standard.”
“No compelling interest — as that term has been defined by the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause — exists in protecting the voting rights of any group that has historically never been discriminated against,” she added.
The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, named after the late civil rights activist who represented Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives, was passed by the New York Legislature in 2022. It seeks to create a state version of what was known as “preclearance” for voting laws that impact ethnic and racial minorities. That requirement was stripped from the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 by a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
New York’s law mandates that local governments or school districts with a history of discrimination must get approval from the state before approving voting policies that impact racial and ethnic minorities.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs argue that the law is constitutional and vowed to appeal the judge’s ruling.
“We are confident that the New York Voting Rights Act is constitutional, and that on appeal that belief will be vindicated,” David Imamura, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
Democrats who pushed the law through the legislature two years ago also criticized the ruling and said they expect the requirements will be restored on appeal.
“When New York enacted the strongest voting rights law in the country, we knew there would be challenges,” state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, chairman of the state Senate Committee on Elections and co-author of the legislation, said in a statement. “I disagree with the court’s legal reasoning and expect this decision will be overturned on appeal.”
The judge’s ruling is the latest overturning federal and state laws that gave special protections based on race and ethnicity.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority also cited the equal protection clause in its ruling that affirmative action programs at colleges and universities were unconstitutional.
