‘We Have Come Too Far to Turn Back Now’

Reactions to the Supreme Court decision today in Louisiana v. Callais.

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling today in Louisiana v. Callais is a threat to voting rights of Americans. Here, reactions from across the country:

“Just when you think the country has hit rock bottom, Callais.” — Lisa Borden, deputy federal policy director, Southern Poverty Law Center

Photo by Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash

“Today, the Supreme Court has dealt a devastating new blow to the Voting Rights Act and against the sacred right to vote. The consequences will be felt across the country: fewer voices heard, fewer communities represented and a democracy diminished. Congress must urgently pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore the full strength of the Voting Rights Act before this latest blow becomes fatal.” — Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), former House speaker

“Today, in Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court of the united States issued a ruling that risks narrowing fair representation and weakening the voice of communities of color. This decision could open the floodgates to efforts across the country that undermine distrcts where minority voters have been able to elect candidates of their choice – putting representation itself at risk. We have come too far to turn back now. We cannot afford to lose ground on the promise of equal voice in our democracy. This is a setback – and a call to stay vigilant, speak out, and keep pushing forward.” — South Carolina state Rep. Kambrell Garvin (D)

“Today’s decision by the Supreme Court is a devastating blow to the promise of equal representation in our democracy. This ruling is about far more than lines on a map — it’s about whether Black Louisianians will have a meaningful opportunity to make their voices heard…. The consequences of this decision are immediate and severe: the hard-fought progress that led to the creation of two majority-Black congressional districts in Louisiana is now in jeopardy. Let’s be clear: this is not about so-called ‘colorblind’ principles. History has shown us time and again that policies claiming neutrality, from literacy tests to poll taxes, have been used to silence Black voices. Louisiana knows this history all too well. Without the protections of the Voting Rights Act, there is no evidence to suggest that Black voters in our state will be able to elect candidates of their choice…. This decision will embolden efforts to dismantle majority-Black districts and fracture communities that have finally begun to see themselves reflected in their government. This isn’t just about federal representation. This decision will also impact state and local governments, impacting Black representation in state capitols and city council chambers across the country. It sends a dangerous signal that the progress we have made can be undone under the guise of legal theory…. America stands at a crossroads. We can move forward and ensure that every community has a voice, or we can slide backward into a past where representation is reserved for a few. Today’s decision moves us in the wrong direction…. We must not allow the erosion of this promise — not now, not in Louisiana, not anywhere, and not on our watch.” — Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.)

“The unfettered right to vote is central to our great democracy. Instead of protecting the ability for American citizens to freely cast their ballot, Republican extremists have embraced voter suppression and racial gerrymandering to desperately cling to power. The corrupt conservative majority on the Supreme Court appointed by Donald Trump has taken a blowtorch to the Voting Rights Act. Why? The extremists need to cheat to win. The American story is filled with moments of adversity, which then yield to a meaningful era of progress. At this time, we must summon the courage, character and conviction of civil rights heroes like Rosa Parks and John Robert Lewis. House Democrats will continue the fight for free and fair elections. We will not rest until the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act becomes the law of the land and we end the era of voter suppression in America once and for all.” — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)

“Our nation’s highest court has been compromised. The CBC will make it our mission to aggressively advance Supreme Court reform. We will work to establish term limits for justices to help restore independence, neutrality, and legitimacy to the Court. We must do all in our power to protect voters from race-based discrimination and set minimum standards that ensure all Americans can participate in free and fair elections. To be clear: It is not just on Black communities to carry the burden of an extremist, right-wing government that sees our rights, humanity, and belonging in democracy as optional at best, and disposable at worst. Our democracy’s best hope is that every American of good will stands up and says enough is enough. This fight is just getting started, and we will not be moved. Our presence at the ballot box in November must be overwhelming. We must become too big to rig so that we take back the House and Senate to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act—and go even further, toward stronger, more comprehensive protections that meet the scale of this moment. We will organize, litigate, and mobilize until the promise of this democracy is not just defended, but fully realized for everyone.” — Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY) and members of the Congressional Black Caucus

“The Supreme Court’s decision to kneecap the Voting Rights Act will make it easier to discriminate, easier to suppress, and easier to silence voters who have already fought too long and too hard for the right to be heard. The VRA was built to stop discrimination before it took root, but this decision is a betrayal of the idea that in America, every vote counts. Make no mistake: the plan is already in motion. Across the country, Republicans are openly floating mid-decade maps designed to dilute Black voters’ representation. That is not theoretical. It is political redlining, and it is happening in real time. We need national redistricting reform to protect the right to equal representation under the law, but Washington Republicans have repeatedly rejected those efforts and bent the knee to Donald Trump as he unleashes chaos on our economy and in our communities…. Until we have national redistricting reform, every state should stay part of the conversation. Maryland has a fundamental responsibility to meet this moment. This week, I signed the Maryland Voting Rights Act into law, because we refuse to wait for Washington to do the right thing. We will use every tool available to defend the constitutional right to representation, protect access to the ballot, and ensure that every Marylander has an equal voice in our democracy.” — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D)

“This decision is a profound betrayal of the legacy of the civil rights movement. By gutting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the Court has weakened the primary legal tool that voters of color rely on to challenge discriminatory maps and election systems. In practical terms, this means that even where racial discrimination in voting is clear and ongoing, communities will be left without the most significant weapon they have to stop states from drawing districts that dilute their political power. Representation for Black, Latino, Native, and other voters of color will increasingly depend on the goodwill of legislatures rather than enforceable law, allowing discriminatory systems to persist unchecked and making meaningful political representation far harder to achieve.” — Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project

“The Supreme Court has reversed decades of progress toward a multiracial democracy in the name of partisan politics. The 6-3 majority decision is the height of hypocrisy and exemplifies the Court’s waning credibility on matters of civil rights and racial justice. The ruling is devastating for Black Louisiana voters and for fair representation for all voters of color.” Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund

“When courts eliminate remedies for racial discrimination in voting, they aren’t just redrawing maps. They’re dismantling democracy and setting back the promise of fair, multiracial representation. Louisiana v. Callais makes painfully clear that the conservative bloc in the Roberts court knows that and doesn’t care. They are closing the door on the democratic promise of meaningful representation and voting rights, leaving too many Americans without protection or recourse from racial discrimination in redistricting. We will continue to fight for what Americans want and deserve—a fair system of representation, in which every community has an equal chance to choose their leaders and hold them accountable.” — Randi Weingarten, AFT president

“This is a disgraceful opinion – decided on strictly partisan lines – and yet another major blow to our democracy. They’ve effectively taken the teeth out of the landmark Voting Rights Act and invalidated so much hard-fought progress. A truly sad day.” — Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT)

“With its decision in Louisiana v. Callais, SCOTUS turned a blind eye to our history of racial discrimination. It held that considering race *to fix* racially discriminatory maps is itself discrimination—destroying the voting rights the 14+15th amendments were created to protect.” — Protect Democracy

“The court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais follows cases that have narrowed federal voter protections, like Shelby County v. Holder and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee. Together, these cases have made it harder for voters of color to challenge discriminatory voting laws and practices. The impacts of the court’s ruling in this case will be felt across the country. Redistricting remains ongoing in many states, and the severe weakening of Section 2 may affect future challenges to congressional, legislative, and local maps that dilute the voting strength of communities of color. Our fight is far from over. We will continue using every tool we have to ensure that every voice counts at the ballot box.” — ACLU

“With this decision, Chief Justice Roberts has completed his campaign to eliminate the bedrock principle that all people have equal access to the polls and to representation in our democratic republic. In effectively overturning the Voting Rights Act, the Roberts Court has ensured that no law can protect against efforts to deny Black voters and other marginalized groups a voice at the ballot box. As it did in its decision against affirmative action, the Court has perverted logic itself to suggest that simple efforts to protect against racial discrimination are somehow, themselves, ‘racist.’ Like the racist literacy tests and poll taxes of the Jim Crow era, states are once again free to discriminate under the guise of neutrality. We are left to wonder if the Fifteenth Amendment is even enforceable or if any effort to ensure racial equality in our elections would be similarly shot down by this Court. We must face the reality that this Court cannot be trusted to uphold the Constitution and steel ourselves to enact reforms that will course-correct the third branch for the sake of our democracy.” — Rachel Rossi, president, Alliance for Justice

“Today’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais is the latest effort of the Roberts Court to hollow out the Voting Rights Act (VRA) until nothing meaningful remains…. The majority opinion in Callais rewrites the rules of our political system and what it means to have a voice within it, in spite of the text and legislative history of the VRA and the Court’s own longstanding precedent. With this decision, the Court’s majority has stripped people of color of meaningful political power in a way that cannot possibly square with the Constitution. The effects will be devastating for communities of color throughout the country. It will now be significantly harder for plaintiffs seeking to make real the promises of the Voting Rights Act to find justice in our courts. As we have seen in recent months, conservative state legislatures have proven willing to pursue naked partisan advantage through the redistricting process at the expense of minority representation. Today’s decision will only add fuel to this raging fire.” — The American Constitution Society

“This decision is a devastating setback in the long fight for equality in political representation for all Americans. By undermining the Voting Rights Act, the Roberts Court has dismantled the ability of voters of color to have a fair chance for representation in government. It demands an immediate congressional response. The Court blessed race discrimination and encouraged partisan gerrymandering. Congress has an urgent obligation to act. With this ruling, the Court has completed its decades-long work to effectively demolish the Voting Rights Act. Today’s ruling likely leaves this landmark law a hollow husk. The Court’s majority claims to have left Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act standing, but it in fact will encourage less transparent and less representative districts. This ruling allows racial discrimination if it also serves overtly hyperpartisan interests. That’s outrageous. The Roberts Court has acted egregiously today. Congress has a duty to respond. It must ban gerrymandering in congressional races, immediately. It should restore and strengthen protections against racial discrimination in voting. And today’s ruling makes clear the need for reform of the Supreme Court, starting with term limits.” — Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law

“Today's VRA decision is intellectually dishonest and wrong. The conservative court basically said: Black people can vote for their preferred candidates, as long as they prefer the right candidates — which will be Republicans. An absolutely mockery of the law and a stain on the court.” — Marc Elias, founder, Elias Law Group

“It is a dark day for our country. The Roberts Court has all but eliminated the Voting Rights Act’s strongest remaining tool for stopping discriminatory maps and election practices. Voters will now have fewer ways to block discrimination in how districts are drawn, and ultimately how their communities are represented. It is more important than ever to meet this moment with an all-out, cross-coalition effort to ensure equal access to the ballot for Black and Latino citizens and the freedom to vote for all.” — Norm Eisen, Contrarian publisher and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund

“Let us be clear about what happened today: six justices of the United States Supreme Court chose to strip Latino, Black, Native, and Asian American voters of the most powerful tool we had to defend ourselves against discrimination at the ballot box. They did it knowing exactly what comes next. They did it knowing that Texas will move to crack the Rio Grande Valley. They did it knowing that Florida will move against Black and Puerto Rican communities. They did it knowing that cities and counties across this country will revert to the at-large schemes and racial gerrymanders that Section 2 was written to dismantle. This is not judicial restraint. This is not colorblindness. This is a deliberate decision to weaken the political power of 70 million Black and Latino eligible voters in a nation that grows more diverse every single day. Politicians should not choose their voters, voters should choose their politicians. Latinos are 14.7% of the American electorate. We are not going away, we are not going to be silenced, and we are not going to be written out of American democracy by judicial fiat. The Court has chosen its legacy today. We will choose ours.” — Juan Proaño, LULAC chief executive officer

“The Supreme Court just issued a license for states to strip away the rights of voters of color. The Voting Rights Act recognized that guaranteeing the basic right to vote of people of color in the United States required affirmative federal protections. Through a steady series of decisions based on the demonstrably false premise that racial discrimination in the U.S. electoral system is nothing more than a historic memory, the Supreme Court has gashed at the Voting Rights Act, leaving it little more than an empty shell. The direct result is the evisceration of the rights and freedoms of voters of color. This ruling strips voting power away from already disenfranchised communities. It paves the way for barely disguised racial gerrymanders that will disempower Black and brown voters and dramatically shift power to favor Republicans.” — Robert Weissman and Lisa Gilbert, Public Citizen co-presidents

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