House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday called the Supreme Court\u2019s six conservative justices \u201ca disgrace\u201d after they dealt a sweeping blow to the Voting Rights Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to do something about this Supreme Court. And let me be very clear: everything is on the table,\u201d Jeffries told MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas<\/a>. \u201cEverything to deal with this corrupt MAGA majority that is issuing political opinions that are designed to bolster the prospects of the Republican party, and we will not allow them to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeffries\u2019 rebuke followed a 6-3 ruling<\/a> by the court\u2019s conservatives on April 29 that struck down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana and severely limited a Voting Rights Act provision<\/a> that has shaped minority representation in Congress for six decades.<\/p>\n The majority found that Louisiana\u2019s 6th Congressional District relied too heavily on race to draw its lines. \u201cThat map is an unconstitutional gerrymander,\u201d Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion.<\/p>\n The ruling sharply curtails the use of race in drawing congressional districts, giving Republicans an opening to dismantle Black and Hispanic majority districts nationwide. It guts a core Voting Rights Act provision known as Section 2 that was designed to ensure minority communities can elect candidates of their choice.<\/p>\n \u201cThese MAGA Supreme Court justices are disgraceful. And for a long period of time, they\u2019ve been trying to gut the Voting Rights Act, and they were able to do it with this decision today,\u201d Jeffries said.<\/p>\n Jeffries\u2019 fellow Democrats condemned the decision while conservatives cheered it as a crushing blow against race-conscious mapmaking.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump<\/a> hailed the decision<\/a> in a Truth Social post as a \u201cBIG WIN\u201d and praised Alito for \u201cthis important and appropriate opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Supreme Court today returned the Voting Rights Act to its original intent, which was to protect against intentional racial discrimination,\u201d wrote James Blair<\/a>, Trump\u2019s deputy chief of staff.<\/p>\n In dissent, liberal Justice Elena Kagan warned the court was \u201cgutting\u201d Section 2 of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.<\/p>\n Former President Barack Obama said the majority seemed<\/a> \u201cintent on abandoning its vital role in ensuring equal participation in our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrats have also intensified calls to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act<\/a>, which would ban partisan gerrymandering and strengthen minority representation protections.<\/p>\n Some went further. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) echoed Jeffries\u2019 vow that \u201ceverything is on the table,\u201d calling on Congress<\/a> to expand the Supreme Court, impose term limits on justices and enact a binding ethics code.<\/p>\n The ruling\u2019s full impact may not be felt until 2028, as most filing deadlines for this year\u2019s midterm election races have passed.<\/p>\n But nearly 70 of the 435 congressional districts are protected by the Section 2 provision, with the court\u2019s ruling creating an opening for Republicans to redraw many of those districts before the next presidential election.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be very difficult for these MAGA Republicans in many of these Deep South states to try to use this Supreme Court decision to adversely impact the 2026 election,\u201d Jeffries said<\/a>. \u201cBut we are going to keep our foot on the gas pedal and continue to apply maximum pressure to these people until we break their gerrymandering scheme once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n The Associated Press contributed to this report. <\/p>\n Tracking the Trump Administration<\/p>\n Read the original article on NJ.com<\/a>. Add NJ.com<\/a> as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday called the Supreme Court\u2019s six conservative justices \u201ca disgrace\u201d after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[4749,24970,485,1729,5385,11827,32871,3997,536,26914],"class_list":{"0":"post-53601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hakeem-jeffries","8":"tag-congressional-district","9":"tag-congressional-districts","10":"tag-hakeem-jeffries","11":"tag-house-minority-leader","12":"tag-justice-samuel-alito","13":"tag-majority-opinion","14":"tag-minority-representation","15":"tag-ruling","16":"tag-supreme-court","17":"tag-voting-rights-act"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116503586104166362","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}