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Condemning the U.S. Supreme Court majority's further gutting of key Voting Rights Act protections in Louisiana v. Callais, thereby making it more difficult to establish majority-minority districts, weakening minority voting power, and undermining our democracy.
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WHEREAS, Generations of American have fought, marched, organized, and sacrificed their lives to secure and protect the fundamental right to vote and ensure equal participation in the democratic process; and
WHEREAS, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race or color by the federal or state governments and empowering Congress to enforce that guarantee; and
WHEREAS, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act prohibits any voting qualification, standard, practice, or procedure that results in the denial or abridgement of the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group, and has historically allowed plaintiffs to challenge voting practices based on discriminatory effect without requiring proof of discriminatory intent; and
WHEREAS, Section 2 has long served as a critical tool for ensuring that communities of color have an equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice, including through the creation of majority-minority voting districts when legally warranted; and
WHEREAS, In Louisiana v. Callais, non-Black voters challenged Louisiana's congressional redistricting plan, arguing that the creation of a second majority-Black congressional district constituted a n unconstitutional racial gerrymander in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; and
WHEREAS, The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled against Louisiana's redistricting plan, restricting the ability of states to consider race in the creation of districts even when attempting to comply with the Voting...
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