The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Monday stripped the ability of individuals and organizations to sue under a section of a federal Voting Rights Act that bars racial discrimination in election procedures—an outlier decision that could end up at the Supreme Court.

In its 2-1 decision, the Eighth Circuit held that only the U.S. attorney general is listed in the act’s text as having authority to enforce Section 2, a ruling in conflict with the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts in dozens of cases over the past several decades.