Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-1086_1co6.pdf
Page Number: 48

Cite as:  599 U. S. ____ (2023) 

3 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

registration, listing pursuant to this chapter, or other 
action required by law prerequisite to voting, casting a 
ballot, and having such ballot counted properly and in-
cluded in the appropriate totals of votes cast with re-
spect to candidates for public or party office and propo-
sitions  for  which  votes  are  received  in  an  election.”  
§10310(c)(1). 

In  enacting  the  original  Voting  Rights  Act  in  1965,  Con-
gress copied this definition almost verbatim from Title VI 
of the Civil Rights Act of 1960—a law designed to protect 
access  to  the  ballot  in  jurisdictions  with  patterns or  prac-
tices of denying such access based on race, and which can-
not be construed to authorize so-called vote-dilution claims.  
See 74 Stat. 91–92 (codified in relevant part at 52 U. S. C. 
§10101(e)).    Title  I  of  the  Civil  Rights  Act  of  1964,  which 
cross-referenced the 1960 Act’s definition of “vote,” likewise 
protects ballot access alone and cannot be read to address 
vote dilution.  See 78 Stat. 241 (codified in relevant part at 
52 U. S. C. §10101(a)).  Tellingly, the 1964 Act also used the 
words “standard, practice, or procedure” to refer specifically 
to  voting  qualifications  for  individuals  and  the  actions  of 
state  and  local  officials  in  administering  such  require-
ments.1  Our entire enterprise of applying §2 to districting 
rests on systematic neglect of these statutory antecedents 
and,  more  broadly,  of  the  ballot-access  focus  of  the  1960s’ 
voting-rights  struggles.    See,  e.g.,  Brnovich  v.  Democratic 
National Committee, 594 U. S. ___, ___ (2021) (slip op., at 
2) (describing the “notorious methods” by which, prior to the 

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1 “No person acting under color of law shall . . . in determining whether 
any individual is qualified under State law or laws to vote in any election, 
apply any standard, practice, or procedure different from the standards, 
practices, or procedures applied under such law or laws to other individ-
uals within the same county, parish, or similar political subdivision who 
have  been  found  by  State  officials  to be qualified  to  vote.”    52  U. S. C. 
§10101(a)(2)(A).