Supreme Court
June 30, 2017 -
In his famous July 4 speech delivered 165 years ago, abolitionist Frederick Douglass said, "With brave men, there is always a remedy for oppression." Now is the time for Congress to be brave for democracy and vote to restore the eviscerated Voting Rights Act.
May 19, 2017 -
The Supreme Court ruled 63 years ago this week in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Today, integration gains are being eroded by voucher programs that use public money to support private schools — and the Trump administration wants to expand those programs dramatically.
December 9, 2016 -
This week the U.S. Supreme Court took up cases involving potentially racially gerrymandered voting districts in North Carolina and Virginia. The rulings are expected to define for the first time what constitutes excessive reliance on race when drawing district lines.
June 30, 2016 -
In Southern battleground states, the growing Latino electorate could be a decisive voting bloc — and especially motivated after last week's 4-4 Supreme Court deadlock effectively halted President Obama's deportation relief programs.
April 21, 2016 -
This week the Supreme Court heard arguments in a lawsuit challenging President Obama's deportation relief programs for undocumented immigrants. Most Southern states are plaintiffs in the case — even though the programs would benefit many immigrants in the region.
April 6, 2016 -
In a major voting rights case, the Supreme Court affirmed Texas' right to draw state legislative districts based on total population rather than eligible voters. But whether states can choose to use voter population instead — and tip the balance of political power— remains an open question.
December 9, 2015 -
In a Texas case titled Evenwel v. Abbott, the plaintiffs are seeking to count eligible voters rather than the total population when drawing political districts — a move that could significantly shift political representation to older, whiter communities in the South and elsewhere across the country.
