1. United States
2. N.J.
3. Letter

The Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais is the culmination of Chief Justice Roberts’ two-decade crusade to gut the Voting Rights Act (VRA); it is, simply put, a devastating blow to American democracy. On its face, Callais strikes down a congressional map drawn to remedy decades of racist gerrymandering by establishing what would have been only the second majority-Black district in Louisiana. Which is bad enough. But this ruling will not be limited to Louisiana. To quote Justice Kagan’s dissent, today’s ruling “eviscerated" Section 2 of the VRA, one of the few remaining protections for Black and Brown voters. Callais opens the door for states to gerrymander Black and Brown majority districts out of existence, suppress those communities' votes and representation, and write them out of government of, by, and for the people. As long as legislatures aren’t open about the racial aims of the gerrymander, it’ll all be perfectly legal.  But we’re not about to treat that catastrophic scenario as a foregone conclusion. If legal barriers are erased to make way for mass disenfranchisement, we need to put ourselves in the way through nonviolent resistance. WE THE PEOPLE call upon you to stand your ground with us and demand equity in voting!