Right-wing judges launch new assault on voters of color

The Voting Rights Act suffered another body blow last week, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit throwing out its own precedent. The VRA, once an example of bipartisan commitment to rectifying the historic injustices perpetrated against Black voters, has been degraded, piece by piece. In part, this is due to Donald Trump getting four years to stuff the federal judiciary with members of the right-wing Federalist Society, but none of this would have been possible if one Chief Justice John Roberts hadn’t made it his life’s work to dismantle the VRA. 

In Petteway v. Galveston, which was filed this past Thursday, the 5th Circuit, sitting en banc, ruled that Section 2 of the VRA does not authorize coalition claims of vote dilution. Dilution typically occurs through redistricting. Blocs of minority voters get “packed” into one district while being “cracked” across others—maneuvers that weaken those voters’ ability to elect their preferred candidate. 

In this case, which combined three lawsuits filed against Galveston County, Texas, the county commission drew district maps that eliminated the lone district without a white majority, which also happened to be the sole district that reliably elected a Democrat.