Voting rights advocates vow to 'relocate' fight after supreme court gutting

Source: The Guardian

Thu 30 Apr 2026 10.00 EDT
Last modified on Thu 30 Apr 2026 11.19 EDT


The voting rights advocates who fought for majority-minority districts across the US south are organizing their next steps after the supreme court effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act on Wednesday and eviscerated much of the work of the civil rights era. “I think that it is deeply troubling that in 2026 that many of us have less rights than our grandparents had – and that becomes truer and truer every year,” said Ashley K Shelton, CEO and president of Power Coalition for Equality and Justice, a Louisiana-based civic engagement organization and a plaintiff in the Callais case.

Shortly after the supreme court decision, Shelton said that it was “deeply disappointing”. The VRA, which codified the 15th amendment’s voting protections for the first time, was signed into law after a hard battle. Exactly five weeks prior, approximately 600 people had aimed to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in demand of voting rights.

On the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the demonstrators were brutally attacked by law enforcement officers, who confronted them with teargas, billy clubs and other weapons. “Bloody Sunday”, as the march is remembered due to the viciousness of the attacks, was a turning point in the civil rights movement, and it directly led to the passage of the VRA. In the decades since the VRA’s passage, section 2 has allowed plaintiffs to challenge electoral maps that suggest they were drawn in an effectively racially discriminatory way.

Voting rights advocates, many of whom have worked for decades to empower voters in their states and regions, say the fight isn’t over just because of the decision. “I think the answer is for Black voters and other voters of color and voters that believe in a multiracial democracy have to show up en masse in the fall and elect a Congress that will restore our rights,” Shelton said.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/30/organizing-next-steps-voting-rights-act-supreme-court