Federal District Judge Mark Walker has effectively ended efforts by voting rights groups to overturn parts of a 2021 Florida election law after an appeals court rejected Walker’s previous decision concluding the law violated the rights of Black voters. 

Walker handed down the decision Feb. 8 in a case filed by the League of Women Voters of Florida against the state’s secretary of state. In the lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Florida, the court found that the plaintiffs had not proved that provisions placing restrictions on drop boxes and third-party voter-registration organizations were unconstitutional. 

Third party groups offer to deliver and turn over voters’ registration materials to election officials.