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Challenging Voting Districts Must Include Proof Of Discriminatory Intent

1980

The case Mobile v. Bolden is a setback for voting rights advocates after the U.S. Supreme Court rules that any constitutional claim that a legislative district dilutes the power of minority votes in violation of the Voting Rights Act must include proof of a racially discriminatory purpose (i.e., that the legislature specifically intended to discriminate on the basis of race.) This requirement is widely seen as making such claims far more difficult to prove.