U.S. Supreme Court Leaves Arkansas Lawsuit Ruling Ending Voting Rights Act Section 208 Enforcement

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not review an Arkansas-based lawsuit, leaving in place a 2025 appeals panel ruling that ends a long-used tool for protecting minority voters from discrimination under the Voting Rights Act in seven mainly Midwestern states.

“Updated June 22, 2026 at 4:43 PM CDT By declining to take up a lower court ruling, the U”

KCUR

The ruling applies to the states covered by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals—Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota—and found that private individuals and groups do not have the right to sue to enforce Section 208, which generally allows voters with a disability or inability to read or write to get help with voting from a person of their choice.

KCUR

The Supreme Court’s move comes almost two months after its conservative supermajority issued a major ruling that further weakened the Voting Rights Act, setting off a groundswell in redistricting across the country.

At issue in the case was a “private right of action,” and in May the high court decided not to weigh in on that question, sending back to lower courts two cases brought by Black voters in Mississippi and Native American voters in North Dakota.

The case the justices declined to take up was brought by Arkansas United, which provided Spanish-language interpreters at polling sites and challenged an Arkansas law that bans a person who is not a poll worker from helping more than six voters cast ballots.

In a statement, Arkansas Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin called the Supreme Court’s refusal to take up the 8th Circuit panel’s ruling “a victory for the state” and applauded the high court for “following the plain meaning of the language in the Voting Rights Act.”

The dispute centers on whether private groups and individuals can sue to enforce Section 208, after Republican officials in multiple states raised a novel argument that only the U.S. attorney general has the right to bring lawsuits under these parts of the Voting Rights Act.

KSMU Radio

The Supreme Court’s order did not explain why it declined review, but Republican officials in Arkansas argued in a court filing last month that no other federal appeals court has issued a ruling specifically addressing whether private groups and individuals can sue under Section 208.

Arkansas United’s attorneys at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund countered that there is a “clear conflict between the Eighth Circuit's decision and the unbroken line of cases allowing private litigants to vindicate their rights under Section 208.”

Thomas Saenz, MALDEF’s president and general counsel, told NPR that the group now plans to eventually ask the Supreme Court to review a private right of action under Section 208 through a Missouri-based lawsuit, which was put on hold while the appeals process for the Arkansas case played out.

The Supreme Court’s decision leaves in place the 2025 appeals panel ruling that private individuals and groups cannot enforce Section 208 through lawsuits in the states covered by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Supreme Court allows a ruling that ends a tool to protect minority voters in 7 states By declining to take up a lower court ruling, the U”

NPR

The NPR report links the broader legal shift to the high court’s earlier action in May, when it sent back to lower courts two cases brought by Black voters in Mississippi and Native American voters in North Dakota after deciding not to weigh in on a “private right of action.”

The KCUR and KSMU reports describe how enforcement of these sections of the Voting Rights Act has mainly been driven by lawsuits by private individuals and groups for decades, and how the Republican argument about limiting enforcement to the U.S. attorney general is expected to lead to a dramatic decline in voting rights lawsuits.

NPR says the Missouri-based lawsuit led by Missouri Protection and Advocacy Services was put on hold while the appeals process for the Arkansas case played out, and that MALDEF plans to press the Supreme Court to review the private right of action question through that Missouri case.

The stakes are framed in the reports as the future availability of Section 208 assistance—help from a person of the voter’s choice for voters with a disability or inability to read or write—after the Supreme Court declined to review the Arkansas ruling.