Eric Holder Condemns SCOTUS for Gutting the Voting Rights Act

Washington, D.C. – Today, Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States, issued the following statement in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais against Louisiana’s new congressional map:

“In effectively gutting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the Court today ensures that it will be remembered as one of the most destructive and deeply irresponsible Courts in the history of our nation. Time and again, in a variety of areas, this Court’s packed, radical majority has shown open hostility to long-held precedents that protect the rights of the American people, and a blatant disregard for facts that do not fit the ideological outcome they prefer. In this instance, by reversing precedent set less than three years ago—by this very same Court—the majority has taken its already extreme predilections to new lows.  

“Through judicial fiat, the Roberts Court has aimed to create a system where billionaires and corporations can more easily buy elections while American citizens, particularly people of color, and specifically black people, are forced to navigate increasingly difficult obstacles that aim to suppress their vote: from inappropriate voter purges to polling location closures and, now, essentially unfettered gerrymandering. It is an approach that is untethered, not only from the American founding ideals, but also from any semblance of legal and judicial norms. 

“It should not be lost on anyone that the Roberts court makes this decision at a time when Republican leaders across the country are foaming at the mouth to draw the American people out of a meaningful say in our elections. They want to retain illegitimately obtained power through the use of, among other things, now Supreme Court sanctioned racial and partisan gerrymandering. 

“This status quo must change. Moving forward, the remedy to this out-of-control, deeply ideological Court must be a renewed commitment by the American people—and those who represent them—to pass new, durable voting rights legislation as well as reforms to our judicial system, so that the Supreme Court is no longer held captive by a minority ideology that acts solely in the best interest of those who adhere to it.” 

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