Whitehouse Statement on Supreme Court Delivering New Blow to Voting Rights Act

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Courts Subcommittee, today released the following statement after the Republican-appointed majority on the Supreme Court issued a ruling in Louisiana v. Callais gutting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965:

"Today, the right-wing Supreme Court supermajority finished what it started over a decade ago - in Justice Kagan's words, 'a judicial project to destroy the Voting Rights Act.' In doing so, the Court effectively rewrote the Voting Rights Act as enacted by Congress and ignored a mountain of factual findings, substituting its preferred facts to reach this desired outcome.

"In addition to jeopardizing the voting rights of millions of Americans, the Callais decision is just more proof that billionaire and fossil-fuel dark money built this Supreme Court to obediently serve the political interests of the Republican party. Today's 'now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act' discards decades of binding Court precedent - including a ruling from just three years ago - and big bipartisan majorities in Congress in a 'project' to suppress Democratic votes and tilt elections for Republicans."