2020—Dividing sharply on ideological lines (in Democratic National Committee v. Hobbs), an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit rules that (1) Arizona’s policy of not counting ballots cast in the wrong precinct has a discriminatory impact on minority voters in violation of the “results test” of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act; (2) an Arizona law, enacted in 2016, that makes it illegal to collect and deliver another person’s early-vote ballot also violates the results test of section 2; and (3) the 2016 law was enacted with discriminatory intent and thus also violates the “intent test” of section 2 and the Fifteenth Amendment. The majority opinion, written by Judge William Fletcher, disagrees with Judge Sandra Ikuta’s ruling for the majority on the original three-judge appellate panel and reverses the district court’s judgment in favor of Arizona.
A year and a half later (under the caption Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee), the Supreme Court will reverse the Ninth Circuit ruling by a vote of 6 to 3.