What does a legal battle in Arkansas have to do with Blacks in Harris County and the Greater Houston area? Literally everything, because the case involves a fight to make sure voter suppression efforts get stopped.
The way the law works, a legal victory for voter suppression efforts in Arkansas can serve as a blueprint for similar actions nationwide.
That’s why over 40 local government leaders from cities and counties across the country, including Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, signed onto an amicus brief in Arkansas State Conference NAACP v. Arkansas Board of Apportionment.
Each of the 40-plus lawmakers view this Arkansas case as a national fight.
The case challenges Arkansas’s state House map for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) by undermining the voting strength of Black Arkansans. In November 2023, a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that concluded voters may not sue to protect their voting rights under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, leaving countless Black and Brown voters in Arkansas, and potentially, across the U.S., in the position of being legally blocked from fighting for and protecting their right to vote.
If this sounds like an undemocratic move to you, that’s because it is.
“The Voting Rights Act is critical to ensuring equal access to the ballot box, and the Court’s ruling undoes years of precedent affirming folks’ ability to challenge discriminatory redistricting practices in court,” said Menefee. “The results of this fight will have wide-reaching implications, potentially closing the path that has been used to protect voting rights for decades. We cannot sit by and let the courts neuter the VRA and put our right to fair representation on the chopping block.”
The brief has been filed in support of a petition for a rehearing in front of the entire Eight Circuit Court of Appeals.
Stay tuned.
