Judges Uphold New York Voting Rights Law, Reversing Lower Court Ruling

Voters cast their midterm election ballots in New York City on Nov. 8, 2022. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

A New York appeals court on Jan. 30 upheld a state law aimed at protecting the voting rights of minorities, reversing a lower court decision.

Plaintiffs in the case failed to establish that New York’s Voting Rights Act of 2022 harmed their constitutional rights, judges in the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court said in the ruling.

The Voting Rights Act created a path for voters to challenge at-large elections on racial or ethnic grounds and required the attorney general to help enforce voting rights.

Orange County state court Justice Maria Vazquez-Doles ruled in 2024 that the law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment. That clause states, “No State shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The clause “prohibits discrimination against all people, not just those classes who have experienced historic discrimination or who experienced such morally repugnant treatment to a degree greater than other people,” the judge wrote at the time, pointing to the U.S. Supreme Court’s prior decision that struck down race-based admission policies at colleges.

In the new decision, New York appellate judges said that the town of Newburgh, which sued over the Voting Rights Act, “failed to show as a matter of law that compliance with the [New York’s Voting Rights Act] would force them to violate the Equal Protection Clause.”

The lawsuit argued that at-large elections to pick town board members in the majority-white town had kept black and Hispanic residents from electing their candidates of choice, diluting their vote. They asked the court to impose a system in which the town, located about 60 miles north of New York City, would elect board members by district.

Justice Hector LaSalle, writing for the unanimous appellate court panel, also said that Vazquez-Doles wrongly blocked the entire Voting Rights Act instead of only the portion she concluded was unconstitutional.

“We are pleased, though not surprised, that the Appellate panel upheld the constitutionality of the New York State John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act and allowed the Newburgh residents who have been shut out of their city’s at-large electoral system to seek a fair shot at choosing candidates to represent them,” David Imamura, a lawyer for the defendants, said in a statement.

An attorney for Newburgh did not return a request for comment.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose lawyers argued that the law was constitutional, said she was pleased with the ruling.

“Our democracy thrives when all voters, regardless of their background, can make their voices heard at the ballot box,” James said in a Jan. 30 statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.