Young people marched and died to win the Voting Rights Act that SCOTUS overturned. Students vow to organize against threats to free & fair elections this fall.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais is a devastating blow to our democracy. By narrowing the scope of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the last remaining pillar of this landmark law after others were dismantled in cases like Shelby County v. Holder; the Court has effectively rendered this fundamental protection a dead letter. Wednesday was a shameful day for the Court. By permitting partisan gerrymandering to serve as a wholesale defense for racial discrimination, the justices have greenlit a system where politicians choose their voters rather than the other way around.
This decision will not exist in a vacuum. It will escalate a nationwide gerrymandering race, where communities of color, already underrepresented, stand to lose the most. At a moment when our multiracial democracy should be strengthened, the Court has instead accelerated its erosion.
We cannot allow political power to be prioritized over the fundamental right to equal representation. The Task Force for Democracy refuses to accept this as the new status quo. While this decision makes our work more challenging, we remain committed to fighting for fair maps in the courts, mobilizing our communities at the ballot box, and demanding that Congress act immediately to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.
“Wednesday’s ruling is an insult to every person who fought to make equal representation a reality in this country. The Court has decided that partisan power matters more than your vote” said Chloe Walker, Campaign Lead for the Task Force for Democracy’s Students for Voting Rights Campaign. “Our Students for Voting Rights campaign stalled attacks on our democracy before, like the SAVE Act, and we will do it again. We are organizing everywhere we can, and won’t stop until every voter has an equal voice.”
The original Voting Rights Act was not handed down freely; it was won through the courage and organizing of young people, including John Lewis and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who put their bodies and futures on the line to demand a real democracy. That same urgency is required now. As Justice Thurgood Marshall said, this is our democracy: we must “make it, protect it, and pass it on.”
