WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 For decades, the faces of American politics have grown more diverse by nearly every measure, especially as racial minority communities gained political representation after longtime legal disenfranchisement and violent discrimination.<\/p>\n
But after some Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism about a key provision<\/a> of the Voting Rights Act of 1965<\/a>, a landmark law that civil rights leaders credit with enabling pluralistic democracy in the U.S., Black lawmakers, civic leaders and organizers fear that the faces of the nation\u2019s elected representatives<\/a> may soon return to a time before hard-fought civil rights gains<\/a>.<\/p>\n Justices on Wednesday heard oral arguments in Louisiana v. Callais<\/a>, a case that scrutinizes whether Section 2, a part of the Voting Rights Act that bars discrimination in voting systems, is constitutional.<\/p>\n Rep. Cleo Fields, who represents the Louisiana congressional district at the heart of the case, sat in the courtroom as the justices questioned attorneys on both sides of the case. He said he hopes the scope of the ruling\u2019s impact would give justices pause about whether to gut the law.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they do away with Section 2, they know the ripple effect that\u2019s going to have all over this nation. It\u2019s not just Congress,\u201d Fields said in an interview with The Associated Press. He added that it was \u201chard to judge\u201d what the justices are thinking, \u201cbut I am cautiously optimistic. I really think all of the justices know what\u2019s at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n Voting Rights Act has broad impacts for communities of color<\/p>\n Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, which bans a range of discriminatory voting practices by state and local governments and individuals, communities of color<\/a> have turned longtime movements into direct political representation \u2014 and power.<\/p>\n State legislatures in the Deep South, once uniformly committed to white supremacy, now feature sizable minorities of Black, Asian and Latino lawmakers. The act was amended a decade after its passage to protect the rights of \u201c language minorities<\/a>,\u201d increasing protections for Asian American, Native American and Latino communities across the country.<\/p>\n Lawmakers elected as a direct result of Voting Rights Act-enabled legislative districts have often served as a voice in state legislatures and Congress for once-overlooked interests. The Congressional Black Caucus<\/a>, for instance, has for decades served as a hub for Black political power and organizing in the country. Lawmakers in VRA districts have become political icons<\/a> and overseen political machines<\/a> that drive national politics<\/a>.<\/p>\n Minority communities in states and districts once subject to VRA review have successfully elected mayors, police commissioners, judges and county commissioners to lead some of the nation\u2019s largest cities and municipalities.<\/p>\n Black residents of communities in VRA districts<\/a> gathered in front of the Supreme Court to rally during oral arguments Wednesday.<\/p>\n Khadidah Stone, a plaintiff in a 2023 case brought by Black Louisianans<\/a> that created Fields\u2019 district and another majority-minority district in Alabama, connected the current lawsuit to President Donald Trump\u2019s calls for states to redraw congressional maps ahead of next year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re back because it\u2019s very evident what the current administration is trying to do when it comes to dismantling what we currently know as democracy,\u201d Stone told The Associated Press. \u201cThat entails destroying things like the Voting Rights Act because it doesn\u2019t align with their ideals of what America should be.\u201d<\/p>\n Some lawmakers worry that progress will be reversed if the law\u2019s protections are removed. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a certain level of anxiety as we look at the mid-decade gerrymandering that\u2019s taking place,\u201d Rep. Yvette Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, told the AP.<\/p>\n Clarke called GOP-led redistricting efforts in states like Texas \u201cblatant targeting\u201d of Black lawmakers and said the case now before the court \u201ccould have an impact for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Troy Carter, a Louisiana Democrat, said the U.S. would become \u201ca very weakened democracy\u201d if the court made a sweeping decision.<\/p>\n \u201cA representative form of government means it should look like its people. If you take away the elements that create the opportunity for it to look like its people, it won\u2019t be a democracy as we hoped it would be,\u201d Carter warned. \u201cIt will be a much weaker one, and ultimately on the road to an oligarchy.\u201d<\/p>\n Supreme Court arguments show Civil Rights movement\u2019s legacy in question<\/p>\n The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is considered to be a crowning achievement of the Civil Rights movement. The law bans discriminatory voting practices like poll taxes and literacy tests. It reaffirms the constitutional right of all citizens to vote. And it established processes by which federal authorities could review how states and localities enacted policies or legislative maps that may disenfranchise voters.<\/p>\n Some of those provisions have been struck down or restricted<\/a> by Supreme Court rulings, like the 2013 case of Shelby v. Holder<\/a>. Voting rights advocates argue that discriminatory actions by states and localities have increased<\/a> since then. If Section 2 meets a similar fate, they warn, Black political representation could be sent back several generations.<\/p>\n Justices on the high court\u2019s conservative majority questioned the long-term effect of requiring that governments remedy violations of Section 2 \u2014 which the law would consider proven claims of discrimination \u2014 with race-conscious solutions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the particular application of the statute that entails the intentional, deliberate use of race to sort people into different districts,\u201d Justice Brett Kavanaugh said to lawyers speaking in defense of Section 2 during oral arguments. \u201cI\u2019m asking what you think the time limit on that should be, or maybe you really shouldn\u2019t think there should be a time limit?\u201d<\/p>\n The court\u2019s liberals countered that Section 2 is a tool and only requires districts to be drawn with race in mind if racial discrimination was the issue at hand. If proven cases of discrimination ended, the law would not be used, they reasoned.<\/p>\n \u201cSection 2 itself is just the measure by which we determine that a remedy is required, so that\u2019s why it doesn\u2019t need a time limit, because it is just pointing us to the direction of where we might need to do something,\u201d said Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.<\/p>\n Congresswoman in Alabama \u2018Bloody Sunday\u2019 district readies for new rights battle<\/p>\n \u201cSitting there listening to the oral argument in person, it was very clear to me that the conservative justices have an end result they\u2019d like and that they were justifying it through their questioning,\u201d said Rep. Terri Sewell<\/a>, an Alabama Democrat.<\/p>\n Sewell had the strong feeling that \u201cold battles have become new again\u201d as she left the court after oral arguments to return to Capitol Hill. She represents a majority-Black Alabama district where, 60 years ago<\/a>, voting rights marchers were brutally beaten<\/a> by state and local police officers while crossing a bridge in Selma to demand the right to vote. The Voting Rights Act mandates her district, which could be redrawn should the law be weakened.<\/p>\n But she left the chamber also undeterred and ready to respond, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cProgress is elusive. The pendulum swings, and it doesn\u2019t swing on its own,\u201d Sewell said. \u201cThis is a continuous struggle, and we pass the baton on to the next generations. And while the baton is in our hand, I think we have to do everything in our power to maintain the representative democracy that we have and to make sure that this democracy is healthy and strong for the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 For decades, the faces of American politics have grown more diverse by nearly every measure,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":313889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[12955,19501,20148,26452,154618,356,7837,16956,69,57,143348,2934,353,50,80,2068,14429,369,158039,121795,89,67,132,68,76450,93,151597],"class_list":{"0":"post-313888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-alabama","10":"tag-asian-americans","11":"tag-black-experience","12":"tag-brett-kavanaugh","13":"tag-cleo-fields","14":"tag-courts","15":"tag-democracy","16":"tag-discrimination","17":"tag-donald-trump","18":"tag-general-news","19":"tag-ketanji-brown-jackson","20":"tag-legislation","21":"tag-louisiana","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","25":"tag-selma","26":"tag-supreme-court-of-the-united-states","27":"tag-terri-sewell","28":"tag-troy-carter","29":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","30":"tag-united-states","31":"tag-unitedstates","32":"tag-us","33":"tag-voting-rights","34":"tag-washington-news","35":"tag-yvette-clarke"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115396238769332412","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}