Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-1257_g204.pdf
Page Number: 57

Cite as:  594 U. S. ____ (2021) 

13 

KAGAN, J., dissenting 

the totality of circumstances, it is shown that the polit-
ical processes leading to nomination or election in the 
State  or  political  subdivision  are  not  equally  open  to 
participation  by  members  of  [a  given  race]  in  that 
[those]  members  have  less  opportunity  than  other 
members of the electorate to participate in the political 
process  and  to  elect  representatives  of  their  choice.”  
§10301(b).3 

Those provisions have a great many words, and I address 
them  further  below.    But  their  essential  import  is  plain: 
Courts are to strike down voting rules that contribute to a 
racial  disparity  in  the  opportunity  to  vote,  taking  all  the 
relevant circumstances into account. 
  The first thing to note about Section 2 is how far its pro-
hibitory language sweeps.  The provision bars any “voting 
qualification,”  any  “prerequisite to  voting,”  or any  “stand-
ard,  practice,  or  procedure”  that  “results  in  a  denial  or 
abridgement of the right” to “vote on account of race.”  The 
overlapping  list  of  covered  state  actions  makes  clear  that 
Section  2  extends  to  every  kind  of  voting  or  election  rule.  
Congress carved out nothing pertaining to “voter qualifica-
tions  or  the  manner  in  which  elections  are  conducted.”  
Holder v. Hall, 512 U. S. 874, 922 (1994) (THOMAS, J., con-
curring in judgment).  So, for example, the provision “covers 
all manner of registration requirements, the practices sur-
rounding registration,” the “locations of polling places, the 
times polls are open, the use of paper ballots as opposed to 
voting  machines,  and  other  similar  aspects  of  the  voting 
process that might be manipulated to deny any citizen the 
right to cast a ballot and have it properly counted.”  Ibid.  
All those rules and more come within the statute—so long 
as they result in a race-based “denial or abridgement” of the 

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3 A final sentence, not at issue here, specifies that the voting right pro-
vided does not entitle minority citizens to proportional representation in 
electoral offices.  See infra, at 19, n. 6.