The U.S. Supreme Court has denied review of a lawsuit that sought to expand voting rights to Americans in U.S. territories, including Guam. The Supreme Court met privately in conference on Friday, Guam time, to weigh whether it would review the case. The lead plaintiff, Luis Segovia, is a Guam resident and military veteran who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. Segovia appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided that ruling in favor of the Segovia plaintiffs would create so-called “super citizens.”
Leading voting rights scholars argued in their brief in support of Segovia that the Supreme Court’s review is necessary to reverse the Seventh Circuit’s decision to apply a lower level of judicial scrutiny to the regulation of voting rights in U.S. territories than it would apply to similar laws impacting Americans in other parts of the United States, Equally American, a nonprofit advocating for civil rights in U.S. territories, stated in a press release.
Scholars who filed court papers include Samuel Issacharoff, professor of constitutional Law at New York University School of Law; Joshua Douglas, Robert G. Lawson and William H. Fortune, associate professors of law at University of Kentucky College of Law; Chad Flanders, professor of law at St. Louis University School of Law; Joseph Fishkin, assistant professor of law at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law; Nicholas Stephanopoulos, professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School; and Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Leon Highbaugh Sr. research chair and professor of law at Stetson University.
Full Article: US Supreme Court won’t review voting rights lawsuit | Guam News | postguam.com.