The Supreme Court dealt a blow to a key remaining protection of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) – and in the two weeks since, lawmakers in the South have rushed to undermine Black voting power.
For almost half a century, the VRA helped to ensure that every voter could make their voice heard at the ballot box, free from discrimination, with nearly unanimous bipartisan support. It was proven to increase voter turnout and registration, especially among Black voters, and helped block countless attempts at racist voter suppression.
But through a series of rulings, most recently in our case Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court has drastically eroded and undermined the VRA so that it is no longer a powerful tool for enforcing voting rights, as Congress intended.
And the results are exactly what you’d predict: Anti-voter politicians are racing to silence Black voters and enact some of the most discriminatory district maps we’ve ever seen.
As voters face an intense new wave of voter suppression, here’s how the ACLU is fighting back:
- In Tennessee… The ACLU of Tennessee helped mobilize hundreds of people to the State Capitol to oppose the new Jim Crow map. The legislature’s rigged congressional map eliminates Tennessee’s only majority Black district, fracturing Memphis residents’ voting strength across three majority white districts. The ACLU and ACLU-TN are now suing.
- In Louisiana… The Louisiana governor and anti-voter lawmakers have used this decision to try to pause an election that’s already underway to push discriminatory maps that would cut Black representation. In response, ACLU organizers and voters alike marched to the Capitol to advocate for fair maps, giving powerful testimony against this racist step backward. Organizers and voters are continuing to mobilize as lawmakers ram new racist maps through the legislature. Representing voters, the ACLU and ACLU of Louisiana are also engaged in multiple emergency legal challenges seeking to reinstate the current election and fight the unfair maps.
- In South Carolina… The ACLU of South Carolina is holding Hands Off Our Votes days of action at the statehouse, where they’ve packed committee meetings debating redistricting, held a rally outside the governor’s office, and given hours of unanimous testimony against a redistricting plan that would cheat voters out of fair elections.
- In Mississippi… The ACLU of Mississippi just won a motion eliminating the immediate need for a special session that anti-voter politicians wanted to use to push through discriminatory maps. The work continues as they challenge the state’s racially discriminatory supreme court map and prepare to block discriminatory congressional maps again in 2027.
- In Alabama… The Supreme Court has vacated the hard-fought congressional maps in Alabama, even though primary voting has already begun using these maps. The ACLU and ACLU of Alabama have returned to the district court to preserve these maps under the new Callais standards and under their intentional discrimination win and stop the Supreme Court’s ruling from undermining Black voters. In the State Senate, the map won after a 2024 trial by ACLU and ACLU of Alabama is still in place and we are fighting to preserve it.
Let’s be clear: The Supreme Court’s ruling in Callais upended decades of progress, but we’re not giving up or backing down from defending our democracy. We can and will continue to fight for Black voters to have an equal say at the ballot box – and with your help, we can win.
None of this critical state-level work is possible without everyday people like you taking action: Join our People Power team to help safeguard our democracy and fight for voters everywhere.
In solidarity,
The ACLU Team
American Civil Liberties Union
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004, USA