On Wednesday, the Supreme Court struck down a congressional map in Louisiana that sought to balance unequal racial representation in federal elections. In a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, the court held that the map relied too heavily on race in its creation. Writing on behalf of the court’s conservative majority, Justice Samuel Alito described the district that initiated the case as a “racial gerrymander.”
Pro-democracy and faith leaders were quick to condemn the vote as a dismantling of the Voting Rights Act.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement that the court “dealt a severe blow to free and fair elections in the United States.” Speaking to the racialized implications of the ruling, she warned that the “decision will open the door to anti-democratic suppression of the right to vote, making it easier for a revival of Jim Crow tactics and diluting the power of voters of color.”
Speaking to the power of the Voting Rights Act, Bee Moorhead, executive director of Texas Impact, said in a statement that the legislation “fundamentally strengthened America as a pluralistic society.” She added that “we cannot afford to lose ground or break faith with the Americans whose rights that law secures.”
According to Perryman, the path forward is to “recommit to protecting and exercising our right to vote and to using our voices to oppose extreme power grabs of state and federal governments that seek to subvert the voices and votes of the people.”
Texas Impact is an interfaith advocacy organization that mobilizes faith communities around public policy issues. According to Moorhead, “faith communities were integral to the passage of the Voting Rights Act,” and she called on people of faith “to defend not just the concept of voting rights, but the concrete laws and protections that effectuate those rights.”
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