Indivisibles,

Today's Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais is the culmination of Chief Justice Roberts’ two-decade crusade to gut the Voting Rights Act (VRA); it is, simply put, a devastating blow to American democracy.

On its face, Callais strikes down a congressional map drawn to remedy decades of racist gerrymandering by establishing what would have been only the second majority-Black district in Louisiana. Which is bad enough.

But this ruling will not be limited to Louisiana. To quote Justice Kagan’s dissent, today’s ruling “eviscerated" Section 2 of the VRA, one of the few remaining protections for Black and Brown voters. Callais opens the door for states to gerrymander Black and Brown majority districts out of existence, suppress those communities' votes and representation, and write them out of government of, by, and for the people. As long as legislatures aren’t open about the racial aims of the gerrymander, it’ll all be perfectly legal. 

But we’re not about to treat that catastrophic scenario as a foregone conclusion. If legal barriers are erased to make way for mass disenfranchisement, we need to put ourselves in the way through nonviolent resistance.

Tomorrow, at 8pm ET/5pm PT, join Indivisible and a broad coalition of partners on a mass rapid response call to discuss the ruling's implications and plan next steps. You'll hear from leaders of the Legal Defense Fund, ACLU, and clients from the case.

Effectively freed of the VRA’s barriers against racist gerrymandering, GOP-led states could add as many as nineteen new Republican-leaning seats to the GOP House caucus in the coming years and hundreds of Republican seats at the state level -- bringing conservatives closer to their dream of a permanent House majority.

Reclaiming our voting rights from Trump and the authoritarian systems working feverishly to strip us of what's constitutionally ours will be neither easy nor quick. But on Thursday, we'll take our first step toward disrupting their plans, together. Join us on the call, and please spread the word to friends and family, and on your social channels.

Folks living in states where minority-majority districts are about to come under attack -- Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee -- will face the immediate impacts of this ruling, but Callais threatens voting everywhere. And recall that our multi-racial, gender-inclusive, one-person-one-vote democracy didn't even truly exist until 1965 when the law that Roberts has dedicated his life to overturning was first passed.

The 14th Amendment gave Black men the right to citizenship and a pathway for them to vote in 1868, and the 19th Amendment enfranchised Black women in 1920, but Jim Crow laws prevented millions from actually casting a ballot -- until 1965. Our true, if unsteady, democracy was then dealt a massive blow in 2013 when the Roberts Court began gutting the VRA with Shelby County v. Holder. Today's ruling threatens to reverse what remained of those decades of progress. 

We can't pretend that the situation isn't dire. Callais likely comes too late to have a direct impact on the midterms, but we expect GOP-led states to very quickly craft proposals to disenfranchise Black and Brown voters in time for 2027 state legislative elections and 2028 federal elections. We need our backlash to meet and exceed that intensity.

Without control of any branch of the federal government right now, these fights will be carried out on the state level. Over the coming weeks, months, and years, we'll provide ways to tap into those fights, from wherever you live, by engaging directly and nonviolently or by supporting civil rights orgs leading the way. 

A Supreme Court ruling is no small matter, but we the people -- in particular, Black and Brown Americans -- have opposed tyranny in the past. The road may be longer than we hoped, but we will win. Again.

In solidarity,
Indivisible Team