WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Allen v. Milligan, blocking the state of Alabama’s congressional map that diluted the votes of Black voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Damon Hewitt, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, issued this statement following the Court’s decision:
“Today the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Black voters in Alabama who spoke truth to power by challenging the state’s congressional map that denied them of the equal opportunity to participate in our political process. Despite a finding by three federal judges that the map was discriminatory, the State of Alabama tried to play a political game by asking the Supreme Court to overturn decades of settled precedent and eviscerate key protections of the Voting Rights Act. The Court rightly refused that invitation.
“The Voting Rights Act was enacted to implement the protections of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments – and specifically to ensure that Black voters and other voters of color are allowed to participate equally in our political system. Today’s decision is a step in the right direction to make good on these sacred constitutional promises. The congressional redistricting map at issue in this case is a textbook example of voter dilution aimed to chip away at our right to equal participation in the democratic process. Nearly ten years after the Court gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in its misbegotten decision in Shelby County v. Holder, also arising in Alabama, the Court’s decision today offers a beacon of hope for the future of our democracy.
“But we must be clear that this ruling does not restore any of the protections of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court has weakened over the past decade. There is still an urgent need for Congress to pass legislation that fully restores the promise of democracy for protections of the Voting Rights Act for Black voters and other voters of color across the country.
“As the nation continues to reel from other ongoing attacks on racial equity and diversity, we must leverage this win for democracy in other contexts, from unconstitutional book bans to efforts to end affirmative action. And let this Alabama case be a warning to the opposition: We will not go quietly into the night as they attempt to dismantle the Civil Rights infrastructure that has been responsible for creating opportunity for millions of Americans. They are on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of morality, and the wrong side of the law.”
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About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law – The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to mobilize the nation’s leading lawyers as agents for change in the Civil Rights Movement. Today, the Lawyers’ Committee uses legal advocacy to achieve racial justice, fighting inside and outside the courts to ensure that Black people and other people of color have the voice, opportunity, and power to make the promises of our democracy real. For more information, please visit https://lawyerscommittee.org
