In Louisiana v. Callais, Supreme Court holds the fate of voting rights in its hands

To be Equal

- Marc H. Morial, President and CEO National Urban League

"This act flows from a clear and simple wrong. Its only purpose is to right that wrong. Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color. This law will ensure them the right to vote. The wrong is one which no American, in his heart, can justify. The right is one which no American, true to our principles, can deny." - President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed the Voting Rights Act of 1964

The Supreme Court holds the future of America in its hands this week. It gets to decide whether this is a nation that serves a great many or only the voices of a select few. It is going to determine if we are charting a path towards fulfilling our promise of liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness for all, or backsliding to a dark past where a racial caste system denied the right to vote to millions of Americans based on the color of their skin.

That is what is at the heart of Louisiana v. Callais, a case that will decide the legality of a Congressional map that adequately reflects the population of the same state where the very same court declared segregation legal just over a century ago in Plessy v. Ferguson.

In Louisiana v. Callais, a group of “non-African-American" voters is decrying that a newly created district in 2024 that allotted for two majority African American Congressional districts, two of six, which directly reflects the state's Black population, discriminates against them.