What The SCOTUS Ruling Means For Black Voting Rights And How We Move Forward

By now, you’ve seen the news of the Supreme Court’s devastating decision in Louisiana v. Callais. Coming nearly 20 years after Republicans last supported reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act, the 6-3 ruling undermines key protections for fair representation and fair maps. 

Written by Justice Samuel Alito, noted for his vivid imagination and distortions of Constitutionally protected rights, the majority’s opinion twists decades of precedent and clear Congressional intent under the guise of fairness. 

Alito’s claims of “racial progress” follow a false narrative deployed across the federal and state governments in an attempt to deny Black political power and our very existence. It also contradicts the testimony and evidence presented to Congress when it last reauthorized the VRA in 2006. 

George Bush signed it without issue. 

The fear of Black power and political participation has been a driving force of our disenfranchisement and worse. Our history has shown that states are a testing ground for discrimination and abuse of power before they go national. 

Long before the current Trump Administration’s war on fair elections and extremist threats to our democracy, states across the country were passing laws to restrict ballot access and gerrymander maps.

We saw this after the Civil War, with former Confederate states faking for readmission to the Union and quickly repudiating the rights finally extended to free Black people. Reconstruction lasted only 12 years in name, but in practice, the promises of true equality have long been denied our folks. 

We saw a backward retrenchment by several states after the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which gutted the primary enforcement mechanism under the VRA.  States like Texas and North Carolina rushed to enact laws previously blocked for discriminating against Black voters. 

Now, amid resurging threats and attempts to steal people’s power and rights, Callais makes it even easier for politicians and their billionaire donors to override our collective will. 

Combined with anti-equity efforts and the erasure of Black history, white supremacy has been trying to eliminate Black communities from all aspects of public life. 

Research by Black Voters Matter Fund and Fair Fight Action estimated that, in the absence of Section 2, Republican controlled state legislatures could eliminate 191 seats held by Democrats. 

Many of them represent majority-Black districts. 

The case reaffirms the need for stronger voting rights protections at the state and federal levels. Groups like the Legal Defense Fund have advocated for states to adopt state voting rights acts to further defend the most sacred right. 

 I often go back to a 1910 quote from Ida B. Wells-Barnett:

“With no sacredness of the Ballot, there can be no sacredness for human life itself. For if the strong can take the man’s ballot, when it suits his purpose to do so, he will take his life also. Having successfully swept aside the constitutional safeguard to the ballot, it is the smallest of matters for the South to sweep aside its own safeguards to human life.” 

Wells is right. We’ve seen the swift clawback of hard-fought rights and protections when voting rights protections fall. 

As the South votes, so does the nation. We’ve seen it time and again, and our power and our votes would not be challenged if it didn’t matter. 

Even as we face the aggressive rollback from the right, I am reminded of the strength of our predecessors like Wells-Barnett. Many organizers and groups are calling for collective action and encouraging a reframing of how we approach elections and the work that comes after. 

Follow NewsOne and me to find out where and how to plug in. The time is now. 

SEE ALSO:

Black Voting Rights And The Impact Of Louisiana v Callais

Trump Admin’s Attack On Civil Rights Groups Is A Call To Action