Supreme Court gives another big green light to GOP voting restrictions

The court acknowledged that a majority of the state legislature had not necessarily “harbored racial hatred or animosity toward any minority group”; instead, they sincerely … believed that a ban on ballot harvesting was needed to combat voter fraud. However, the 9th Circuit continued, that sincere belief resulted from (among other things) allegations that were themselves false — allowing the court of appeals to attribute a discriminatory purpose to legislators under a theory known as the “cat’s paw” doctrine.