Today’s 6-3 Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais is a devastating blow to democracy and Black political power. The Court struck down Louisiana’s second majority-Black Congressional district, rendering Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act toothless.
In response, Community Change Action Co-Presidents Lorella Praeli and Dorian Warren issued the following statement:
“Today’s ruling is the latest weapon in a decades-long campaign by right-wing power structures to dismantle our democracy. This Court is weaponizing the law to drag us back to a pre-Reconstruction time when Black voters had ‘no rights which the white man was bound to respect.’ It’s a power grab and coordinated strike to rig our elections and silence voters.
Rights don’t survive on paper; they survive when people are organized to defend and expand them. Every protection we have ever won came from sustained pressure, disruption, and collective action. That’s the terrain we’re on.
Voting is a right that people fought for after centuries of bloodshed and exclusion. If the rules are being rewritten to lock people out, then the task is to build enough power to rewrite them again through new systems that actually reflect the multiracial majority.”
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