Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee

JUSTICE GORSUCH, with whom JUSTICE THOMAS joins, concurring.¶

I join the Court’s opinion in full, but flag one thing it does not decide. Our cases have assumed—without decidingthat the Voting Rights Act of 1965 furnishes an implied cause of action under §2. See Mobile v. Bolden , 446 U. S. 55, 60, and n. 8 (1980) (plurality opinion). Lower courts have treated this as an open question. E.g., Washington v. Finlay , 664 F. 2d 913, 926 (CA4 1981). Because no party argues that the plaintiffs lack a cause of action here, and because the existence (or not) of a cause of action does not go to a court’s subject-matter jurisdiction, see Reyes Mata v. Lynch , 576 U. S. 143, 150 (2015), this Court need not and does not address that issue today.¶