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The Supreme Court avoids taking up a fight over Voting Rights Act enforcement for now
A demonstrator holds a sign saying “PROTECT MINORITY VOTING RIGHTS” at a March 2025 rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Legal Defense Fund
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Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Legal Defense Fund
Weeks after further weakening the Voting Rights Act, the U.S. Supreme Court sidestepped weighing in on a legal question that could severely limit enforcement of the law’s remaining protections for minority voters.
In a brief, unsigned order on Monday, the high court announced it is sending cases about Mississippi and North Dakota state legislative maps back to lower courts to be reconsidered in light of its recent ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.
That landmark decision in April weakened the Voting Rights Act’s protections against racial discrimination in redistricting and as a result reignited the congressional gerrymandering battle sparked by President Trump ahead of the 2026 midterm election to help Republicans keep control of the House of Representatives.
Monday’s move by the court effectively allows the justices to take an off-ramp from hearing what could have been the next major Supreme Court fight over the landmark 1965 law.
What the court avoided in Monday’s order: a “private right of action”
What’s known as Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has been mainly enforced as a result of lawsuits by voters and advocacy groups, who have brought hundreds of challenges to maps of voting districts and other election-related procedures.
But in the Mississippi and North Dakota redistricting cases, Republican officials have raised a novel argument — that private individuals and groups do not have a right to sue under Section 2, and only the U.S. attorney general does.
Such an interpretation would lead to far fewer Section 2 lawsuits, legal experts say.
The Supreme Court’s decision not to take up the question of what the legal world refers to as a “private right of action” under Section 2 drew pushback from liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
In dissents from Monday’s order, Jackson pointed out the high court’s ruling in the Callais case did not address the legal question of Section 2’s enforceability by private individuals and groups.
“Thus I see no basis for vacating the lower court’s judgment,” Jackson said, criticizing the move to throw out earlier lower court rulings in both the Mississippi and North Dakota cases.
Enforcement of another Voting Rights Act section is also at risk
Still, while those cases now make their way back down the federal court system, the future enforcement of another section of the Voting Rights Act is also under question.
Section 208 generally allows voters who need help to vote because of a disability or inability to read or write to get assistance from a person of their choice. But in a case challenging an Arkansas law, a panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has found that private groups and individuals cannot sue to enforce Section 208.
That federal appeals court also ruled against a private right of action under Section 2 in the North Dakota legislative redistricting case.
In an opinion dissenting from the 8th Circuit’s decision not to review the panel’s decision in the Arkansas case, Chief Judge Steven Colloton, a nominee of former President George W. Bush, wrote the 8th Circuit continues on a “regrettable path of rendering unenforceable, in this circuit alone, the voting rights law that many have considered ‘the most successful civil rights statute in the history of the Nation.’ “
A Supreme Court brief on the Arkansas case is due Monday as the justices prepare to decide, at some point, whether to take it up.
Edited by Benjamin Swasey
ICE agents stand guard outside a immigrant detention center in Newark, New Jersey in May 2026. Medicaid officials improperly shared data about millions of people with ICE, who then shared that data with the data analytics firm Palantir, according to new court filings.
Adam Gray/Getty Images
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Adam Gray/Getty Images
After Medicaid officials improperly shared data about millions of people in January with immigration officials, ICE then shared that data with the data analytics firm Palantir, according to new court filings. Palantir operates an app called ELITE that is used by ICE agents to show the addresses of noncitizens who may be subject to deportation.
That revelation was made public in a motion filed Thursday by more than 20 Democratic attorneys general who sued the Trump administration last year over its data-sharing agreement between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and ICE.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in California ruled in December that health officials could share with ICE certain details from Medicaid data about immigrants without lawful status from the states that had sued, such as home addresses, dates of birth and immigration status.
Chhabria, who was appointed by former President Obama, then temporarily paused data sharing between CMS and ICE for immigration enforcement purposes in late May after federal officials admitted CMS had shared data with ICE in January that went beyond what the court order allowed. One dataset of refugees in Minnesota included U.S. citizens, and another that was transferred on Jan. 7 contained data of millions of people, including those in the country legally.
ICE was supposed to delete the improperly shared data. Chhabria set a hearing for August to further clarify his order and clear up ambiguity regarding which categories of noncitizens’ data could be lawfully shared with ICE.
But in recent days, federal officials have admitted to additional instances of improper data sharing.
In a court filing last week, the Justice Department said that CMS again inadvertently reshared with ICE the dataset with millions of names that CMS had first improperly shared with ICE in January. The government said the error occurred during an effort to share data from states not involved in the lawsuit.
Alberto Briseno, a section chief for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations, wrote in a declaration that ICE personnel deleted the file after it was discovered and it was not used for law enforcement purposes.
Then Briseno revealed that a day later, the agency had done a broader search and discovered that half a dozen users still had a copy of the Jan. 7 dataset.
In that most recent declaration, Briseno said he was not aware of any additional copies of the dataset, but said the recent searches have “highlighted technological difficulties of making a representation that every possible variation of the file has been searched for and located.” He added, “ICE will continue to make good faith efforts to delete any copies that may be found in the future.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice is asking the judge to expand his order to allow ICE to receive data on a broader category of noncitizens – to potentially include all immigrants who are not legal permanent residents, citizens or have another form of permanent status.
“ICE’s inability to identify Medicaid records in its possession undercuts any claim that the agency should be entitled to more access to that data,” the Democratic attorneys generals wrote in their motion filed late Thursday.
Their motion continued, “Each successive revelation of a violation of the Order makes it more difficult for Plaintiff States to have confidence in Defendants’ ability to maintain and secure this data in compliance with the Order, and more difficult for Plaintiff States to communicate assurances to Medicaid providers, enrollees (and their counsel), and the public at large about the privacy and confidentiality of their healthcare data.”
Palantir did not immediately return a request for comment about whether the company had deleted the Jan. 7 dataset that ICE had shared after improperly receiving it from CMS. DHS also didn’t immediately return a request for comment about its transfer of data to Palantir.
According to a declaration filed by California deputy attorney general Anna Rich, when plaintiffs asked what federal officials did to ensure Palantir and other contractors had purged the data, defendants responded that the data had been shared over a Microsoft Teams chat and the shared data was deleted from the chat. Rich shared in her declaration a document turned over in discovery from federal officials that shows a redacted transcript of what appears to be ICE personnel asking Palantir to delete the file.
In an April 30 hearing, Chhabria had warned the federal government would not be able to continue using Medicaid data for deportation efforts if it continued improperly sharing the data of citizens and legal immigrants.
“If the federal government cannot be sufficiently careful then it can’t use the information, ok?” Chhabria had said.
ICE has been trying to continue its mass deportations without drawing headlines. Our White House correspondent Zolan Kanno-Youngs explains how two fatal shootings at traffic stops raise the question of whether the Trump administration can continue its campaign without deadly consequences.
Topline
The National Weather Service is cautioning people in states as far south as South Carolina to monitor local air quality as smoke from hundreds of Canadian wildfires pours over the border and American politicians rail against the country as the fires burn out of control.
People sit near the Brooklyn Bridge as wildfire smoke from Canada causes hazy conditions on July 16, 2026 in New York.
AFP via Getty Images
Key Facts
The National Weather Service issued air quality alerts Friday due to wildfire smoke in parts of North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, Delaware, Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, Maryland and Washington D.C.
Air quality in parts of Michigan has been declared “hazardous”—the most extreme category—and Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana are experiencing “very unhealthy” levels of air pollution.
New York, including New York City, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware and Maryland are warning of “unhealthy” air and a widespread haze from the smoke, and states further south and east are warning sensitive populations may be at risk.
The smoke is spilling across borders from roughly 850 wildfires burning in Canada, many of the largest in Ontario, and more than a dozen fires in northern Minnesota.
Republican members of Congress are slamming Canada’s government for what they perceive as inaction in preventing and stopping the wildfires causing the smoke and poor air quality, with one even calling for sanctions.
Four Michigan Republicans—Reps. John James, Jack Bergman, John Moolenaar and Lisa McClain—said in a letter this week that Canada “has the tools to prevent” the smoke from pouring into the U.S. and “has chosen not to,” and Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) said in a post on X that he will table a bill next week to “sanction Canada and the responsible Canadian government officials for this atrocity.”
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“Our constituents are breathing the consequences of this failure right now, and they deserve better than to be told, again, that it will be handled,” the Michigan lawmakers said in their letter.
HOW TO STAY SAFE FROM WILDFIRE SMOKE
Those in states with extreme air quality warnings are being cautioned to limit outdoor activity and, in states with very unhealthy and hazardous warnings, to stay inside altogether with windows closed. Doctors advise anyone with heart or lung disease to stay indoors, and other groups to take precautions. For people who work outside, health officials have recommended wearing an N95 mask, which can filter at least 95% of airborne particles.
WHY IS WIDLFIRE SMOKE SO DANGEROUS?
Smoke from wildfires is made of water vapor, pollutants and particulate matter, which can penetrate the lungs and bloodstream, trigger systemic inflammation, exacerbate conditions like asthma and increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Smoke also contains a mix of harmful gases, most notably carbon monoxide. Wildfire smoke has been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular health problems, with children and teenagers, older adults, pregnant people and anyone with pre-existing heart or lung conditions at a particular risk.
SHOULD PEOPLE IN WILDFIRE SMOKE STATES WEAR A MASK?
When the Air Quality Index rises to unhealthy levels—as it has in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut on Thursday—masks are recommended for people who must spend time outside. Respirator masks worn correctly may provide some protection against fine particles in the smoke, but they do not help with hazardous gases. Staying inside is considered the safest option, but those who must go outside can mitigate some risk by wearing a mask. N95 or P100 respirators are considered the most effective.
Key background
Scientists say climate change is creating hotter, drier conditions and longer fire seasons, increasing the likelihood of large, intense wildfires across North America. NASA says human-caused warming is driving more frequent and severe wildfire conditions in many regions, and that extreme wildfire activity has more than doubled worldwide over the past two decades. Research shows fire seasons in some areas are now more than a month longer than they were 35 years ago, and those larger fires also produce more smoke, allowing hazardous air pollution to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles and affect millions of people far from the flames.
BIG NUMBER
$394 billion to $893 billion. That’s the annual cost of wildfires in the United States each year, according to the Joint Economic Committee, including direct and indirect deaths and injuries, health impacts from wildfire smoke, income loss, watershed pollution and other factors.
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