Supreme Court puts a 'bullet' in the Voting Rights Act
The Supreme Court just took a blowtorch to the landmark Voting Rights Act.
The Supreme Court took a blowtorch to the landmark Voting Rights Act on Wednesday, in a ruling Al Sharpton called a “bullet in the heart of the voting rights movement.”
The ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, written for the conservative majority by Justice Samuel Alito, struck down Louisiana’s majority-Black congressional map — a decision that will likely impact other Black districts in GOP-led states. The 6-3 decision weakens Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, meant to protect Black Americans and other voters of color from racist discrimination in elections.
In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan said the ruling was a “demolition of the Voting Rights Act,” and it made Section 2 “all but a dead letter.”
“The court’s decision will set back the foundational right Congress granted of racial equality in electoral opportunity,” she wrote.
You can download the full decision below.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson said the ruling was “a devastating blow to what remains of the Voting Rights Act.”
“Today’s decision is a devastating blow to what remains of the Voting Rights Act, and a license for corrupt politicians who want to rig the system by silencing entire communities. The Supreme Court betrayed Black voters, they betrayed America, and they betrayed our democracy,” Johnson said in a statement.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of the “1619 Project,” said the ruling will likely lead to a “disappearance of much of the Black congressional representation.”
“There are people still living who fought — and watched their compatriots be murdered — for the passage of this act and to attempt to democratize America,” she wrote. “To see it [completely] felled in the span of their OWN lifetime is just absolutely devastating.”
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