Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

News & Analysis Policies & Forms Your Library
News & Analysis Policies & Forms Your Library

User account menu

Sign in Get Started
x

You're signed out

Sign in to access subscriber actions.

How voting rights just became an employment issue

July 2021 federal employment law insider
Authors: 

by Burton J. Fishman, FortneyScott

The debate about voting rights has properly attracted the nation’s attention. There is no right more fundamental to this democratic republic than universal franchise—the right to vote. Just how and why the fairest, cleanest, electoral process ever is under a variety of legislative attacks and limitations is cause for profound concern. We also now have a first look at how the U.S. Supreme Court will assess the voter suppression legislation passed in a number of states. The decision shows why the issue is important for employers.

Disparate impact

In Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, Arizona’s purportedly neutrally and universally applied restrictions on certain voting practices were at issue. The restrictions were to be assessed under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, generally believed to address “voter dilution.”

Significantly, Section 2 is all that’s left of the Act after a previous Court ruling rendered Section 5’s more sweeping provisions ineffective. But Section 2 isn’t without power. As amended by Congress in 1982, it doesn’t require proof of intentional discrimination. Any voting practice with a disparate impact (particularly regarding race) could be the basis for a Section 2 violation, regardless of the practice’s intent.

Continue reading your article with a HRLaws membership
  • Sign in
  • Sign up
Upgrade to a subscription now
to get unlimited access to everything on HR Laws.
Start subscription
Any time

Publications

  • Employment Law Letter
  • Employers State Law Alert
  • Federal Employment Law Insider

Your Library Reading List

Reading list 6
Creating List 7
Testing

Let's manage your states

We'll keep you updated on state changes

Manage States
© 2025
BLR®, A DIVISION OF SIMPLIFY COMPLIANCE LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Footer - Copyright

  • terms
  • legal
  • privacy