For more than three decades, the Republican National Committee had to operate under a federal consent decree monitoring its activities, such as poll-watching and voter ID requirements. With the Reagan-era court order now lifted, the RNC plans to make “election integrity” a key 2022 campaign issue.

The decree goes back to a 1982 Democratic National Committee lawsuit accusing the RNC of suppressing the black vote through targeted mailers warning about the consequences for violating election laws and by posting armed, off-duty police officers at the polls in communities of color.