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The Supreme Court has acted in a Voting Rights Act case brought by Native American tribes, saying a closely watched ruling needs to be reconsidered after the high court weakened the Civil Rights-era law<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n WASHINGTON — <\/span>The Supreme Court acted in a Voting Rights Act case brought by Native American tribes on Monday, saying a closely watched ruling needs to be reconsidered after the high court weakened the Civil Rights-era law.<\/p>\n The justices ordered lower courts to take another look at the decision<\/a> that went against the tribes and undercut a key enforcement mechanism: lawsuits from voters and advocacy groups. <\/p>\n Advocacy groups are key players because they bring most of the lawsuits filed under the provision of the Voting Rights Act known as Section 2.<\/p>\n But in a North Dakota case brought by two Native American tribes<\/a>, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals<\/a> ruled that only the federal government can sue to enforce the law. <\/p>\n The decision<\/a> conflicted with decades of case law. The Supreme Court blocked it in July<\/a>, allowing the tribes\u2019 preferred maps to temporarily stay in place. <\/p>\n The appeals court\u2019s finding has nevertheless been cited elsewhere, with Mississippi making a similar argument in another appeal over its state legislative map. The court also sent that case back for reconsideration on Monday.<\/p>\n Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the decision, writing that both rulings should have been reversed. <\/p>\n The conservative majority, meanwhile, has already diluted enforcement power with their April decision<\/a> that struck down a majority Black congressional district in Louisiana and made future cases much harder to win. <\/p>\n In that case, the high court\u2019s conservative majority ruled that map relied too heavily on race with a district aimed at giving Black voters a chance to elect a candidate of their choice. The decision effectively limited Voting Rights claims to maps that are intentionally designed to discriminate, a very high standard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n