ACLU of MS Statement on Ruling in Callais 

JACKSON, Miss - The Supreme Court issued a decision today in Callais v. Landry, a ruling that weakens the protections for minority voters under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The ACLU of Mississippi has issued the following response:

Today’s decision is a profound setback for our multiracial democracy. By weakening Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the Court has undermined one of the last remaining tools that protected voters from racial discrimination in redistricting.

In Mississippi, access to the ballot, alone, does not ensure Black voters have equal representation. A full decade after the VRA, only 4 of the 174 Mississippi legislators were Black. At the time, Mississippi lawmakers used gerrymandering to cancel out the strength of Black voters.

“In Callais, the Court is giving the Mississippi legislature a greenlight to go back and use those same discriminatory schemes to limit the ability of Black voters to elect legislative or congressional candidates of their choice," said Jarvis Dortch, Executive Director of ACLU of Mississippi.

Today’s opinion could endanger these hard-won victories that have brought responsive representation to Mississippi.

Just last year, another federal court found that the districts used to elect Mississippi Supreme Court justices prevented Black voters from having opportunity to elect candidates of their choice, violating the Voting Rights Act.

Even under Callais standard, those judicial districts violate the Voting Rights Act and should be redrawn. We have shown you can draw the requisite district in a race-blind fashion. The elections here are non-partisan and we have produced evidence that racial polarization was driven by race, not party. And the extensive evidence on the totality of the circumstances here was grounded on contemporaneous fact.

Before today’s opinion, Mississippi’s Supreme Court districts diluted Black voting strength. That has not changed. The ACLU’s fight to correct the state’s racially discriminatory supreme court map is also unchanged.

The Voting Rights Act has been attacked before, and every attack has sparked stronger activism, broader coalitions, and deeper commitment. This moment will be no different.