04/30/2026
Why Justice Matters More Than Ever Before...
Statement from the National Environmental Justice Institute ( NEJI) and Center for Sustainable Communities
The National Environmental Justice Institute (NEJI) makes the following statement on yesterdays Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act.
Today, the Supreme Court crushed one of the last remaining guardrails against racist and discriminatory voting maps. Once again, the promise of equal protection under the United States Constitution has been broken, and it is a major setback for our multiracial democracy.
The ruling issued this morning in Louisiana v. Callais, the Court effectively allowed for the creation of racially discriminatory political maps across the country, impacting representation in all levels of government, from Congress to the local school boards.
Today’s decision effectively guts a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act, freeing state legislatures to gerrymander legislative districts to systematically dilute and weaken the voting power of racial minorities — so long as they do it under the guise of “partisanship” rather than explicit “racial bias.” And it serves as just one more example of how a majority of the current Court seems intent on abandoning its vital role in ensuring equal participation in our democracy and protecting the rights of minority groups against majority overreach.
Kristen Clarke, NAACP General Counsel says it best
"This is one of the most-consequential and devastating rulings issued by the Supreme Court in the 21st Century. The Supreme Court has put the death knell into our nation's most important federal civil rights law, one that provided Black Americans access to a democracy that they had long been excluded from. The ruling defies precedent, ignores statutory text, and will reverse decades of progress we have made as a nation. This will embolden lawmakers in former slave-holding states to target and eradicate districts that have provided Black Americans a fair opportunity to elect candidates of choice, and they will do so with the blessing of this Court. It ignores the tremendous sacrifice made by Americans who bled and died for passage of the Voting Rights Act
From Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward.
“Today the Court dealt a severe blow to free and fair elections in the United States. The Voting Rights Act, passed by a bipartisan majority after the nation witnessed the horrors of racially motivated state-inflicted violence on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, has been a crown jewel of our nation’s civil rights protections and has been essential to voting rights in the United States. As it has done with so many of our nation’s protections, the U.S. Supreme Court majority has significantly harmed voting rights and, in so doing, the American people,” “This decision will open the door to anti-democratic suppression of the right to vote, making it easier for a revival of Jim Crow tactics and diluting the power of voters of color. While this is a sad day for our democracy and fair representation in America, the path forward is clear: we must recommit to protecting and exercising our right to vote and to using our voices to oppose extreme power grabs of state and federal governments that seek to subvert the voices and votes of the people. We must hold those in power who have — for too long — opposed or delayed progress toward more comprehensive voting protections to account.
Fair voting maps are essential for fair representation. With today’s ruling, the Supreme Court is conceding generations-long battles that won us the Voting Rights Act, a testament of Black imagination and shared power. Without Section 2, Black votes may be counted for turnout, but legislatures won’t reflect our communities.
Our vote has power—period.
That’s why it’s being attacked. Black Americans are the inheritors of a long line of builders, visionaries, and freedom fighters who pushed this country forward. Black Anericans and other racial minorities know that every major civil rights victory in our history grew out of moments just like this one. The Voting Rights Act has been attacked before, and every attack has sparked stronger activism, broader coalitions, and deeper commitment to democratic values.
It’s significant that this ruling will apply to this year’s midterm elections, all while democratic norms and institutions erode under executive overreach, weak judicial enforcement, and constant assaults to civil rights. We ( NEJI) must call out these injustices, as it is clear that they want to keep Black people and other minorities boxed out of power, and take us back to the times of Jim Crow — creating one set of rules for themselves and one set of rules for us.
We ( NEJI) know that when Black voters can organize, participate, and be heard, we build stronger and thriving communities for all. The good news is that such setbacks can be overcome. But that will only happen if citizens across the country who cherish our democratic ideals continue to mobilize and vote in record numbers — not just in the upcoming midterms or in high profile races, but in every election and every level.
Making a more Just, Sustainable, Equitable and Resilient World for All
