Human Rights and Global Wrongs

Support justice-driven, accurate and transparent news — make a quick donation to Truthout today! 

The Supreme Court appears poised to deal a severe blow to the fundamental right to vote in two cases this term. Louisiana v. Callais threatens the right to vote free from racial discrimination and Watson v. Republican National Committee will test the right to have your absentee ballots counted.

On August 1, 2025, when the Supreme Court asked the parties in Callais to brief the issue of whether Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) violates the 14th or 15th Amendment to the Constitution, alarm bells rang throughout the country.

By posing that question, the high court signaled its openness to striking down the remaining core of the VRA, which Congress enacted in 1965 to prevent racial discrimination in voting. Section 2 forbids the use of congressional maps that dilute the voting power of marginalized communities.

Section 2 was included in the VRA in order to enforce the 15th Amendment, which prohibits the government from denying or abridging the right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

In Callais, a group of self-described “non-African American” voters claimed that the “intentional creation of a majority Black district” violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The Supreme Court Asks Why It Shouldn’t Gut the Voting Rights Act

During the oral argument on October 15, 2025, a majority of the Supreme Court appeared ready to side with the “non-African American” voters.

Moreover, at its March 23 argument in Watson, the court seemed inclined to overturn a Mississippi law that allows mail-in ballots to be counted if they are postmarked by, and received within five business days of, Election Day. Mail voting in Mississippi is limited to a few types of voters, including those with disabilities, the elderly, and people living away from home.

The Trump administration would like to prohibit mail-in ballots that aren’t received by Election Day. If the court holds that ballots must be received by Election Day, untold numbers of voters could be disenfranchised.

The “Crown Jewel of the Civil Rights Era” Is Gravely Imperiled

The Voting Rights Act — known as the “crown jewel of the civil rights era” — is in danger of being rendered null in Louisiana v. Callais.

Section 2 of the VRA prohibits any voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or procedure or practice that “results in a denial or abridgment of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race.” That occurs when voters of color “have less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political........

© Truthout