Category: Supreme Court
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Independence Day and the Fight for the Vote
Independence Day commemorates the country’s Declaration of Independence and its promise of self-government. Honoring that promise also requires us to remember those who were originally denied it and the generations-long fight for access to the ballot. In 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” calling on…
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Supreme Court Ruling Protects States’ Ability to Count On-Time Mail Ballots
On June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Watson v. RNC that states may continue to count mail ballots after Election Day when state law allows a grace period for ballots postmarked by Election Day. The case focused on a Mississippi law that allows mail ballots to be counted if they are postmarked by…
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A Letter from Our Executive Director on the Supreme Court’s Decision in Louisiana v. Callais: This Is Not Normal
Dear Community, What happened on Wednesday is not just another court decision. With the stroke of a pen, the Supreme Court made it harder to challenge unfair voting maps. And we need to be honest about what that means. It means communities, especially Black communities, can be divided, diluted, and pushed out of fair representation…
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The Supreme Court Stripped Away Key Protections in the Voting Rights Act, Putting Fair Representation At Risk
On Wednesday, April 29, in Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court cleared the way for politicians to draw voting maps that weaken the political power of Black voters and other communities of color, making it far more difficult to challenge those maps in court. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act was one of the…