Supreme Court lets states ‘openly discriminate against Black voters,’ Democrats, voting advocates say

Democrats and civil-rights advocates are speaking out after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority delivered a final blow to the Voting Rights Act (VRA) Tuesday when it allowed Alabama to use a congressional map previously found to have intentionally discriminated against Black voters.

The historic ruling effectively gives states free rein to discriminate and leaves virtually no federal protections for non-white voters, even in extreme cases. Lawmakers can now intentionally eliminate minority political representation.

Critics — including the three liberal Supreme Court justices in a fiery dissent — aren’t mincing words about how harmful the ruling is.

“The Supreme Court has now confirmed that there is no longer a Voting Rights Act in America, and states are essentially free to discriminate against minority voters with no consequences,” Rep. Shomari Figures, the Alabama Democrat whose district the ruling directly targets, said in a statement. “This is a dangerous ruling that sets the State and this nation back decades.”

“Now we know: Today is the day the SCOTUS took the remaining life out of the VRA,” Kareem Crayton, vice president of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Washington, D.C., office, said in a statement. “Despite the clearest evidence of intentional race discrimination by [Alabama] — that two conservative justices credited, the Court now rewards a state that openly defied a court order. Cold work.”

Kristen Clarke, general counsel of the NAACP, blasted the Supreme Court majority for stripping Black voters of political power “at a speed that would put Jim Crow jurists to shame.” 

Deuel Ross, director of litigation at the Legal Defense Fund, described the nation’s new legal reality in clear, bleak terms: “The Supreme Court’s decision gives cover to Alabama and others to deliberately and openly discriminate against Black voters without fear of any consequence. The Court’s shameless decision to reinstate a racially discriminatory map defies any thoughtful or consistent application of the law.” 

“Tonight, Alabama has officially rejoined the old Confederacy,” said Doug Jones, a former Alabama Democratic senator who is currently running for governor. 

In a video posted on social media, he said the Supreme Court had acted in “an incredibly malignant way” and delivered an “absolutely outrageous” ruling without any legal reasoning aside from their own partisan preferences.

Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), who represents Alabama’s remaining Black-majority district, condemned the court for “allowing Alabama Republicans to change the rules in the eleventh hour and use a racist congressional map that federal courts have found — on two separate occasions — intentionally discriminates against Black Alabama voters.”

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) blasted Alabama Republicans for rushing to enact a racist map in an election where absentee voting had already begun.

“As soon as Section 2 of the VRA was eviscerated, they’ve leapt into action to try to remove Black elected officials, not by defeating them at the polls, but by manipulating maps to dilute minority power,” Ossoff said during a TV appearance.

For his part, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) made his own plea to voters: “WAKE UP, AMERICA.”

“The Supreme Court majority just admitted it’s a PARTISAN operator willing to TORCH the rule of law to advance its ideological agenda,” Newsom said through a statement on his press office account. “In an unprecedented move with a brief UNSIGNED order, it: 1) IGNORED the central basis of the lower court’s decision, 2) DISREGARDED its own precedent (that it had assured just weeks ago remained good law), and 3) REWARDED Alabama’s defiance of a federal court order.” 

The ruling appears to be further igniting calls from Democrats to seriously consider major reforms to the Supreme Court. 

“The greatest threat to American democracy may no longer be found in Congress or the White House. It may be found across the street,” Jaime Harrison, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement. “The Roberts Court has become an unelected super legislature, rewriting decades of settled law, weakening voting rights, stripping away freedoms, and shielding the powerful from accountability.…Every federal candidate should run on reforming this Court.”