The Supreme Court’s ruling in a Voting Rights Act case Thursday may appear modest in scope and subdued in rhetoric, but it will have a sweeping impact — undercutting efforts to challenge a slew of new laws Republican-led states have passed imposing new restrictions on the ballot, lawyers and civil rights activists said.

"It will have a devastating impact on our ability, and other civil rights groups' ability, to protect the rights of voters through the courts,” said NAACP President Derrick Johnson.

The 6-3 loss for voting rights advocates also resurfaced second-guessing of the Democratic National Committee’s decision to file the suit on which the justices ruled, targeting Arizona’s longstanding refusal to allow out-of-precinct voting and a 2016 law banning collection of mail-in ballots through a practice critics call “ballot harvesting.”

Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. 
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.