On Thursday, American voters learned once again why it was so important to vote in 2016 while also learning that their vote may not be as easy to cast in 2022. The Supreme Court struck down a challenge to an Arizona voting law that makes it legal to pass restrictions that may make it harder for minorities to vote.
Stacey Abrams, former candidate for governor in Georgia and current voting rights advocate from the Democratic party, reacted to the decision saying that “the erosion of democracy is gaining speed,” and it seems that it’s picking up even more speed among communities where voting is already more difficult.
According to POLITICO:
‘In a pair of high-profile cases from Arizona, the justices split 6-3 along ideological lines, with the majority concluding that disparate impacts on minority groups would typically not be enough to render voting rules illegal under the act.’
The ruling found that laws that make it more difficult for certain racial groups to vote do not necessarily violate the Constitution, which renders the Voting Rights Act of the 1960s, which grew out of the Civil Rights Act, all but obsolete. More liberal justices disagreed with the decision.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent that:
‘In a pair of high-profile cases from Arizona, the justices split 6-3 along ideological lines, with the majority concluding that disparate impacts on minority groups would typically not be enough to render voting rules illegal under the act…What is tragic here is that the Court has (yet again) rewritten — in order to weaken — a statute that stands as a monument to America’s greatness, and protects against its basest impulses. What is tragic is that the Court has damaged a statute designed to bring about ‘the end of discrimination in voting.”‘
Abrams received a lot of support for her vocal protest of the decision on Twitter. Read some of their comments below:
