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‘A devastating blow’: major civil rights group calls supreme court ruling on voting case ‘a major setback for our nation’ – live
NAACP decries 6-3 decision that ruled Louisiana must redraw its congressional map, a landmark case that guts major section of Voting Rights Act
Activists and participants gather in front of the supreme court during re-argument of Louisiana v. Callais in October.Photograph: Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Legal Defense Fund
Meanwhile, Derrick Johnson, president of theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP), the nation’s oldest civil rights group, saidthe high court’s decisionin Louisiana v Callaisdelivers “a devastating blow to what remains of the Voting Rights Act”.
The ruling is “a license for corrupt politicians who want to rig the system bysilencing entire communities,” Johnson said in a statement today.
He went on:
The Supreme Court betrayed Black voters, they betrayed America, and they betrayed our democracy.
This ruling isa major setback for our nationand threatens to erode the hard-won victories we’ve fought, bled, and died for. But the people still can fight back.Our democracy is crying for help.
James Comey surrenders amid justice department charges over social media post
Former FBI directorJames Comeyon Wednesday surrendered to law enforcement at federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia, according to CNN, citing a source familiar.
His hearing was set to begin at 1pm EST. Trump’s justice department filed has charged Comey with making threats against the president, stemming from a picture he posted on Instagram while on vacation last year in which sea shells were arranged to say “86 47”.
Comey said in a video message on Substack on Tuesday that he is “still innocent”.
Earlier today,KevinWarsh, Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve, cleared a key procedural hurdle on Wednesday, opening the way for him to succeed Jerome Powell next month amid the White House’s unprecedented efforts to exert control over the world’s most powerful central bank.
Warsh’s nomination was approved in a 13 to 11 vote, strictly along party lines with Republicans supporting the nomination, setting up a confirmation vote in the US Senate in the coming days.
All 13 Republicans on the panel voted in support of Warsh afterThom Tillis, a North Carolina senator, dropped his opposition following the Department of Justice’s decision on Friday toend a criminal investigationinto Powell that Tillis viewed as a threat to the Fed’s political independence.
The panel’s 11 Democrats, who say they doubt Warsh’s promise to set policy without regard to the president’s wishes, voted against him.
In a statement before the vote, Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic senator and ranking member of the Senate’s banking committee,repeatedher concern that Warsh will be a “sock puppet” for Trump.
'A democracy diminished': Pelosi urges Congress to act after supreme court voting decision
Former House SpeakerNancy Pelosicalled the supreme court’sruling in Louisiana v Callaisa “new blow” against the “sacred right to vote”.
“The consequences will be felt across the country: fewer voices heard, fewer communities represented and a democracy diminished,” Pelosi said.
She urged Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights act, which would modernize the Voting Rights Act of 1965 but has been repeatedly blocked by Republicans.
“Congress must urgently pass the John R Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore the full strength of the Voting Rights Act before this latest blow becomes fatal,” Pelosi.
The Senate majority leader,Chuck Schumer,said the “Supreme Court just turned its back on one of the most sacred promises in American democracy—the promise that every voice counts”.
Democratic senatorChris Coonssaid the supreme court’sruling in Louisiana v Callais“has told the nation that some voices and votes are worth less than others”.
Generations of Americans marched, served, protested, and died for the promise of our democracy. Today, the Supreme Court continues itssteady march to forget that sacrifice and undo that promise.
By restricting Americans’ ability to choose candidates that represent their communities, the Supreme Court has told the nation thatsome voices and votes are worth less than others.
The Voting Rights Act was a declaration thatour democracy belongs to all of us. I still believe in the promise of our democracy, and I will keep fighting to make it real and to make sure your voice and vote matter.
Hegseth attacks Democrat for calling war on Iran 'a quagmire'
Pete Hegsethfurther defended theIranwar in fiery remarks to Congress, insisting that the unpopular conflict isnot a quagmire.
“You call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies? Shame on you for that statement,” Hegseth told DemocratJohn Garamendi, claiming that that language “undermines the mission”.
Garamendi had said Trump’s war strategy was one of “astounding incompetence”, describing it as a “serious self-inflicted wound to America” and highlighting the thousands of civilians and 13 US service members killed.
The blocking of the strait of Hormuz was “foreseeable”, he added, telling the defense secretary:
You have been lying to the American public about this war from day one, and so has the president.
He noted that the Iranian regime is intact, along with Iran’s missile and drone systems, and that the war has strengthened Iran’s coordination with China, Russia and North Korea.Trump is “stuck in a quagmire” of another war in the Middle East, Garamendi said.
Hegseth lambasted Garamendi’s statement as “reckless”. “Your hatred for President Trump blinds you,” he said.
Back atPete Hegseth’s hearing at the House armed services committee earlier, the defense secretary got into a heated exchange with ranking memberAdamSmithwhen he was asked how the government plans to end the nuclear threat fromIran.
“It is worth noting that every president prior to this one, including President Trump in his first term, also prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon without actually having to go to war in Iran,” Smith said.
He then asked Hegseth why the United States attacked Iran in February if the operation last summer had successfully “obliterated”Iran’s nuclear program, asDonald Trumpclaimed, and questioned if there was an imminent threat that made the war necessary.
When Hegseth repeated that claim that Iran’s nuclear facilities were “obliterated” underground, Smith chimed in: “You just said 60 days ago … the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat. Now you’re saying that it was completely obliterated.”
Hegseth said Iran’s nuclear ambitions had not been eliminated but argued that its nuclear program had been.
US senator for GeorgiaReverend Raphael Warnocksaid the decision “further ravaged” the Voting Rights Act and left the country “at a crossroads where politicians are picking their voters”.
“Today’s Supreme Court decision marksa profound defeat for American democracy and will pave the way for partisan politicians to pick their voters,” the Democrat said in a statement.
“Clearly, we are straying further from the core voting principles that helped create the diverse body that people see representing them today. We must restore the Voting Rights Act and ban gerrymandering.Our democracy is on the line.”
US representativeTroy Carter, whose predominately black congressional district encompassesNew Orleans, said in astatement:
This ruling is about far more than lines on a map —it’s about whether Black Louisianians will have a meaningful opportunity to make their voices heard.
Carter saidthe consequences of the high court’s decision will be “immediate and severe”and that Louisiana’s two majority-black congressional districts are now at risk of being dismantled.
Without the protections of the Voting Rights Act,there is no evidence to suggest that Black voters in our state will be able to elect candidates of their choice.
This decisionwill embolden efforts to dismantle majority-Black districts and fracture communities that have finally begun to see themselves reflected in their government.This isn’t just about federal representation. This decision will also impact state and local governments, impacting Black representation in state capitols and city council chambers across the country.It sends a dangerous signal that the progress we have made can be undone under the guise of legal theory.
The mayor ofNew Orleans,Helena Moreno, a Democrat who represents the largest city inLouisiana’s other predominantly black congressional district, saidthe supreme court’s ruling was “a step backward”.
For decades, the Voting Rights Act has served as a critical safeguard to ensure every voice, especially those historically marginalized, has a meaningful opportunity to be heard.
Striking down a district that reflected diversitysuppresses voices and weakens our democracy.We should be working to expand representation, not roll it back.
Lauren Groh-Wargo, executive director ofFair Fight Action, a Georgia-based voting rights group founded by Democrat and former US representativeStacey Abrams,said the supreme court’s decision“guts” voting rights protection while “pretending to uphold it”.
She said the court rewrote the law to require a showing of intentional discrimination. That’s after Congress in the early 1980s specifically rewrote the Voting Rights Act to overturn an earlier supreme court decision in an Alabama case that tried to do the same thing.
At the time,Chief Justice John Robertswas a justice department attorney advocating for a showing of intentional discrimination.
She said:
It allows states, counties and cities to shield their discriminatory maps by claiming they are advancing their own partisan interests, ignoring that race and party are highly correlated in places across the country, particularly the South.
Indeed, the ruling could open the door for Republican-led states to eliminate Black and Latino electoral districts that tend to favor Democrats and affect the balance of power in Congress.Donald Trumphas already sparked a nationwide redistricting battle to boost the GOP’s chances.
'A devastating blow': NAACP says supreme court ruling is 'a major setback for our nation'
Meanwhile, Derrick Johnson, president of theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP), the nation’s oldest civil rights group, saidthe high court’s decisionin Louisiana v Callaisdelivers “a devastating blow to what remains of the Voting Rights Act”.
The ruling is “a license for corrupt politicians who want to rig the system bysilencing entire communities,” Johnson said in a statement today.
He went on:
The Supreme Court betrayed Black voters, they betrayed America, and they betrayed our democracy.
This ruling isa major setback for our nationand threatens to erode the hard-won victories we’ve fought, bled, and died for. But the people still can fight back.Our democracy is crying for help."
White Drivers Got a Warning. Latino Drivers Got Detained.
"What Body Cam Footage Reveals About ICE’s Tactics
New body camera footage from Nashville reveals a disturbing pattern of ICE and state troopers using minor traffic stops to target Black and brown drivers.
The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstandingvalues. It is separate from the newsroom.
Many Latinos have begun carrying ID with them at all times. But as Juanita Avila and Javier Ramirez will tell you, sometimes it doesn’t matter. ICE stopped them — seemingly on the basis of their skin color — and shoved them to the ground without offering them a chance to show ID.
Times Opinion gained access to a rare glimpse of ICE on patrol, reviewing 50 hours of body camera footage from a single night in Nashville. An investigation led byLighthouse Reportsfirst made the footage public.
The footage reveals a pattern of overt racial profiling that’s been approved by an unusual source: the Supreme Court. The court has effectively banned the consideration of race in college admissions and many other parts of American life, but last year it gave ICE a green light to stop people based on their appearance or accent. This video shows the alarming results.
The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom."
"The Voting Rights Act, among the most consequential pieces of U.S. civil rights legislation, was signed into law in August 1965. It came nearly a century after the 15th Amendment outlawed racial discrimination in voting in 1870.
Despite the amendment, Black Americans had continued to face barriers to one of the nation’s most fundamental rights even after ratification, including violence and intimidation, poll taxes and literacy tests. For many decades before the federal law was passed, activists marched, protested and organized voter registration campaigns. Some were brutally beaten or murdered.
The act required some state and local governments, mostly in the South, to get federal approval before changing their voting laws. It also prohibited election or voting practices that discriminate based on race, which eventually led some states to draw new congressional maps with districts that have a majority of Black voters.
In recent years, the Supreme Court has chipped away at the federal law and its enforcement tools. On Wednesday, the court, which has had a conservative majority,dealt another blow to the historic legislationby throwing out Louisiana’s latest congressional map as an illegal racial gerrymander.
Here’s a look at some events that led to and followed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
MAY TO DECEMBER 1961
The Freedom Rides challenge segregation in public transportation across the South.
Footage of a bus used in the Freedom Rides traveling between Montgomery, Ala., and Jackson, Miss., in May 1961.Reuters
The Freedom Rides of 1961 nonviolent strategy aimed to test whether state and local governments were complying with two Supreme Court rulings. One declared that enforcing segregated seating on interstate buses was unconstitutional. The other found that segregated lunch counters, bathrooms and waiting rooms in bus terminals were unconstitutional.
The firstFreedom Ridersincluded 13 men and women, both Black and white, who traveled and sat together on interstate buses. The group included 21-year-oldJohn Lewis, who would go on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives for more than 30 years.
The group planned to ride from Washington to New Orleans on two buses in May 1961. But during multiple stops, they were attacked and beaten and one of the buses was firebombed. The violence forced the Freedom Riders to finish their trip to New Orleans by plane.
In May 1961.Daily Express/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images
More than 400 volunteers participated in the rides, including Doratha Smith-Simmons, known as Dodie, now 82. As an 18-year-old, she rode a bus to aGreyhound stationin McComb, Miss., where her group was attacked by a white mob. Ms. Smith-Simmons said recently that while the episode had been terrifying, she “was willing to die for the cause.”
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Collectively, the rides — and the violent pushback from their opposition — helped expose the oppression ofJim Crow laws. They gained national attention and pushed the federal government to enforce desegregation laws.
June to August 1964
Freedom Summer helps register voters in Mississippi.
Freedom Summer was a 1964 campaign led by the Council of Federated Organizations, a coalition of civil rights groups, to register Black voters in Mississippi. More than 700 college students, mostly white and from Northern states, worked with local Black community members over 10 weeks to register voters.
The volunteers distributed registration information, assisted in filling out forms and escorted residents to the courthouses. It was not without risk: Some were beaten and arrested, and their cars were firebombed. Three voting rights activists — Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney — were abducted and murdered outside Philadelphia, Miss.
Of the estimated17,000 African Americanswho tried to register to vote that summer, according to the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, only 1,600 applications were accepted. That low number served as evidence of the state’s exclusion of Black voters.
FEBRUARY 1965
A Voting Rights Activist was killed in Alabama.
Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old Black farmer, was shot by a white Alabama state trooper while participating in a voting rights march in Marion, Ala. His death spurred, in part, the major civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery. At the time, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was leading a campaign in Alabama to fight for voter rights.
A short excerpt of an interview with the Rev. Dr. King in February 1965 as part of his campaign to push for voter registration and rights.ITN, via Getty Images
March 7, 1965
The Bloody Sunday march in Selma becomes a catalyst for voting rights.
Video footage of Bloody Sunday, the mass march of about 600 activists protesting the denial of voting rights in Selma, Ala., where Alabama state troopers and sheriff’s deputies wielded billy clubs, bullwhips and tear gas against protesters.Associated Press Television
What would become known as Bloody Sunday began as a march of about 600 activists in Selma, Ala., protesting the denial of voting rights and the killing of Mr. Jackson. The march was led by Mr. Lewis, who by then was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the Rev. Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
As the group crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were met by Alabama state troopers and sheriff’s deputies wielding billy clubs, bullwhips and tear gas.
Mr. Lewis was beaten and his skull was fractured.
“My legs went out from under me,” he recounted in a 2012Democracy NOW! interview. “I felt like I was going to die.”
The viciousness of the assault, captured in photos and footage, shocked the national consciousness and built support for the Voting Rights Act.
March 15, 1965
President Lyndon B. Johnson delivers a historic speech, asking Congress to act.
President Lyndon B. Johnson makes a speech to Congress in 1965, urging them to pass the Voting Rights Act.Associated Press
Just after Bloody Sunday, President Lyndon B. Johnson made his powerful “We Shall Overcome” speech to Congress. The televised address was watched by 70 million Americans,according to the White House Historical Association. Mr. Johnson argued that ensuring the right to vote was a fundamental principle of the American promise. He urged Congress to act immediately.
Aug. 6, 1965
The Voting Rights Act is signed into law.
Mr. Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act into law.Associated Press
“Today is a triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on any battlefield,” hesaid at a signing ceremonyon Capitol Hill.
The Justice Department quickly started enforcing the legislation, suing over poll taxes in Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Virginia.
Nov. 7, 1972
The first Black lawmakers are elected to Congress from the South since Reconstruction.
Andrew Young, left, an aide to the Rev. Dr. King, was elected to a Georgia seat that included metro Atlanta. Barbara Jordan, a former state senator, was elected to a Houston-area seat.Left: Associated Press; Right: Tom Colburn, Houston Chronicle/Associated Press
The first Black lawmaker was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1870. But most Black Americans who have served in Congresswere elected after the Voting Rights Act, though not all of those representatives were from states directly affected by the act.
The first two Black Southerners to win House seats after the law passed — in fact, since the late 1800s — both won after their districts were redrawn to follow the law.
Barbara Jordan, a former state senator, was elected to a Houston-area seat.Andrew Young, an aide to the Rev. Dr. King, was elected to a Georgia seat that included metro Atlanta. Both ran as Democrats.
Black members of the U.S. House of Representatives
Number of Black representatives in office by election cycle
Voting Rights Act signed
1965
10
20
30
40
50
60
Newly elected
Already in office
1870
1900
’20
’40
’60
’80
2000
’20
1993-2013
Several civil rights leaders take office after winning in majority-minority House districts.
Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, left, who would serve as the No. 3 Democrat between 2007 and 2023, and Representative Bobby Scott of Virginia, who remains the top Democrat on the House Education Committee, both took office in January 1993.Left: Maureen Keating/Associated Press; Right: Karin Cooper/Getty Images;
Legal challenges under the Voting Rights Act were reshaping congressional maps across the South. New maps helped several civil rights leaders successfully run for office.
Representatives Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, who would serve as the No. 3 Democrat in the House between 2007 and 2023, and Bobby Scott of Virginia, who remains the top Democrat on the House Education Committee, both took office in January 1993.
That year, Bennie Thompson, now the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, won a special election to represent a Mississippi district that includes the state capital and much of the Mississippi Delta.
June 25, 2013
The Supreme Court strikes down the core of the act with the Shelby v. Holder decision.
In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that nine states, as well as some counties and municipalities elsewhere in the country, no longer had to receive federal approval to change their election laws.
The rulingeffectively struck downthe heart of the Voting Rights Act. The court split along ideological lines, with the conservative majority essentially finding that federal oversight was no longer needed.
“Our country has changed,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. “While any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions.”
2023-2024
Alabama and Louisiana redraw their congressional maps, as court fights continue over redistricting.
Without federal enforcement, states could redraw their congressional maps in ways that diluted the voting power of Black and other minority residents. When a case challenging a new map in Alabama reached the Supreme Court in 2022, some legal experts expected the conservative majority to strike down what remained of the Voting Rights Act.
But the courtrejected Alabama’s map, which included only one majority Black congressional district in a state where Black residents made up about 26 percent of the voting-age population.
That ruling led to a new map not just in Alabama, but in Louisiana, where a similar challenge was unfolding. Under the new maps, each state had two districts where a majority of voters were Black.
And in 2024, Alabama and Louisiana each sent two Black representatives to Congress.
2024
A group of voters challenge Louisiana’s congressional map before the Supreme Court.
Unlike Alabama, where a federal court oversaw the drawing of the new map, Louisiana lawmakers sought to draw their own.
A new map prompted a challenge from asmall group of white voters in Louisiana, who argued that the state legislators had discriminated against them by impermissibly taking race into account when they drafted the new map. The Supreme Court heard arguments that fall in the case, Louisiana v. Callais.
Oct. 15, 2025
The Supreme Court again hears Louisiana v. Callais, focusing on the question of using race in redistricting.
Having delayed a clear ruling in Louisiana v. Callais earlier in 2025, the Supreme Court again heard arguments over the state’s new congressional map.
This time, the court focused on whether Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional because it used race as a factor in redistricting.
