Tag Archives: Voting Rights Act

Republican governors in Alabama and Tennessee have called special legislative sessions to redraw congressional maps, escalating a nationwide redistricting fight after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey summoned lawmakers back to Montgomery beginning Monday to consider new maps …

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry plans to delay the state’s May 16 congressional primary to give lawmakers time to redraw district lines after the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the current map, according to two people familiar with the decision. Landry, a Republican, informed GOP members of Congress …

More than a decade after the Supreme Court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act and just two years after it declined to unravel another, the high court on Wednesday will hear a consequential challenge to Louisiana’s congressional map that could further weaken the law’s protections for minority …

Louisiana is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a decades-old precedent that has safeguarded minority voting rights, urging the justices to strike down the central provision of the Voting Rights Act and ban any use of race in redistricting. In a legal brief filed Wednesday, Republican Attorney General Liz …

In a major development for voting rights, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that would have drastically limited the power of private citizens and civil rights groups to sue under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The high court’s decision grants an emergency …

Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder It’s back to Atlanta and back to the drawing board for Georgia legislators, who are set to gavel in for a special session Wednesday after a federal judge ruled the redistricting maps they produced in 2021 did not protect the rights of Black voters. Lawmakers will …

  In a contentious 2-1 decision, a panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled that private individuals and groups, such as the NAACP, lack the authority to sue under a crucial section of the federal Voting Rights Act. This decision contradicts decades of precedent and …

Jill Nolin, Georgia Recorder State officials will appeal a federal judge’s ruling that struck down Georgia’s 2021 political maps for diluting the voting strength of Black Georgians. But state officials will not try to block last week’s ruling while the appeal is being heard, according to a notice filed with …

Since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Shelby County v. Holder exactly 10 years ago Sunday, at least 29 states have enacted nearly 100 restrictive laws including many that are racially discriminatory, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice. The nonpartisan law and policy …

Brian Lyman, Alabama Reflector The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday upheld a lower court ruling that Alabama’s 2022 congressional maps violated the Voting Rights Act, a ruling that preserves a major part of the law and could lead to new congressional maps in Alabama. A three-judge panel in January 2022 ruled …

Ariana Figueroa, Florida Phoenix Republican election officials from Florida, Ohio and Louisiana on Friday detailed to lawmakers on a U.S. House Administration panel the success of their states’ handling of the 2022 midterm elections, and said they can run their own elections without federal intervention. The chair of the Elections …

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Monday that it has filed a lawsuit under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act against the State of Texas and the Texas Secretary of State, challenging the State’s redistricting plans for the Texas congressional delegation and the Texas House of Representatives. …

Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed sweeping voter suppression legislation into law on Wednesday. The bill blocks 24-hour and drive-thru voting. The measure also makes it difficult for voters to mail in their ballots. “The common-sense reforms in this legislation strengthen our trust in the electoral process, from voter registration …

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is warning states not to attempt to weaken voting power among minority communities ahead of redistricting. The guidance comes as states begin to draw congressional and state legislative districts. “Discriminatory redistricting schemes or election practices threaten that fundamental right and are illegal,” Attorney General Merrick …

The House of Representatives voted Tuesday to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which supporters say would reestablish critical sections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that recent Supreme Court decisions have overturned. The vote was 219-212 among party lines, with not a single Republican voting for …