On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear new arguments in Louisiana v. Callais, which holds significant implications for the future of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The justices will decide whether Louisiana’s inclusion of another majority-Black congressional district “violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the US Constitution.”
00:00It's not a showing of intentional discrimination.
00:02Why does it need to be?
00:04Is your suggestion that the only thing that's worthy of remedying is the intentional discrimination by the state?
00:12I think what you heard and saw today in the courtroom was a bench that was fully aware of the difficulties that the states have been in under the court's voting precedents.
00:21If you know Louisiana's story, you know that for the past couple of years, we have been struggling to find a map, a congressional map, that satisfies the court's precedents.
00:31It's been extremely difficult.
00:33We argued it once earlier this year.
00:34We're back here.
00:35And what I told the court at the podium is, look, at the end of the day, we really need clarity.
00:40The states need clarity on how they're supposed to comply with the Voting Rights Act and with the Equal Protection Clause.
00:46I think at the end of the day, that's what we're hoping the court will give us.
00:49So we've said all along the court needs to clarify its precedent and it needs to create a workable system for legislatures to be able to do their jobs and comply with the Constitution
01:01and to draw maps that can have predictability and stability for our states and their congressional representation.
01:10That's not what's been happening with the jurisprudence in this area.
01:14And so whatever they do, we hope that it will result in better clarity and better instructions for legislatures.
01:21We feel confident that if the court relies on its precedent, if it continues to have a commitment to the 15th Amendment and to this project of multiracial democracy, that it will rule in our favor.
01:34There has been no change in conditions or the law since it decided Allen v. Milligan a mere 28 months ago, where the court reaffirmed the constitutionality of Section 2,
01:49where the court rejected many of the specious arguments that our opponents have asserted on this second argument of the case.
01:57And so we feel very confident that the law is absolutely on our side.
02:02And while we are fighting for the rights for black voters in Louisiana and across the country to have an equal opportunity to participate in our electoral process,
02:13that win is a win for democracy. It is a win for all Americans. It is a win for the rule of law.
02:20And that is why we fight, because we believe in the future of this country and we believe that black people have a right to be part of it and to self-determine who will represent them and to be part of the future of this country.
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