New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) slammed a recent Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act, saying the decision “risks disenfranchising millions.”
“Today’s Supreme Court decision is a direct assault on the promise of the Voting Rights Act. It risks disenfranchising millions of Americans along racial lines and weakening the very foundation of our democracy,” Mamdani said in a post on the social platform X on Wednesday.
“Democracy is not self-sustaining. We must build, preserve, and defend it together,” he added. “Here in New York City, we will always lead a government of, by, and for the people — all of the people.”
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court declared Louisiana’s addition of a second majority-Black congressional district an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The decision, 6-3, weakened a central provision of the Voting Rights Act.
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has historically enabled advocacy groups to force additional majority-minority districts. Wednesday’s decision does not get rid of the provision as a whole, with Justice Samuel Alito portraying it as an “update” to the framework that has governed Voting Rights Act cases for decades.
Alito said the Constitution does not allow for Louisiana’s new majority–Black district.
“That map is an unconstitutional gerrymander, and its use would violate the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights,” Alito wrote.
Mamdani’s fellow New Yorker, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D), blasted the decision, calling it “awful.”
“The consequence is as clear as it is dangerous: fewer protections for voters, more power for politicians to draw maps that silence them, particularly voters historically disenfranchised,” Schumer said in a statement.
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