Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-1257_g204.pdf
Page Number: 72

28 

BRNOVICH v. DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE 

KAGAN, J., dissenting 

country that introduced it—served entirely to prevent un-
due influence.  But when adopted, it also prevented many 
illiterate citizens—especially African Americans—from vot-
ing.    And  indeed,  that  was  partly  the  point.    As  an  1892 
Arkansas song went: 

The Australian Ballot works like a charm, 
It makes them think and scratch, 
And when a Negro gets a ballot 
He has certainly got his match. 

Kousser  54.    Across  the  South,  the  Australian  ballot  de-
creased  voter  participation  among  whites  by  anywhere 
from 8% to 28% but among African Americans by anywhere 
from  15%  to  45%.    See  id.,  at  56.    Does  that  mean  secret 
ballot  laws  violate  Section  2  today?    Of  course  not.    But 
should the majority’s own example give us all a bit of pause?  
Yes, it should.  It serves as a reminder that States have al-
ways  found  it  natural  to  wrap  discriminatory  policies  in 
election-integrity garb. 
  Congress enacted Section 2 to prevent those maneuvers 
from working.  It knew that States and localities had over 
time enacted measure after measure imposing discrimina-
tory voting burdens.  And it knew that governments were 
proficient  in  justifying  those  measures  on  non-racial 
grounds.    So  Congress  called  a  halt.    It  enacted  a  statute 
that would strike down all unnecessary laws, including fa-
cially neutral ones, that result in members of a racial group 
having unequal access to the political process. 
  But the majority is out of sympathy with that measure.  
The majority thinks a statute that would remove those laws 
is  not,  as  Justice  Ginsburg  once  called  it,  “consequential, 
efficacious, and amply justified.”  Shelby County, 570 U. S., 
at 562 (dissenting opinion).  Instead, the majority thinks it 
too “radical” to stomach.  Ante, at 21, 25.  The majority ob-
jects to an excessive “transfer of the authority to set voting 
rules from the States to the federal courts.”  Ante, at 25.  It