The federal Voting Rights Act, which aimed to nullify state and local laws that prevented Black Americans from voting, recently marked its 60th anniversary. Unfortunately, those protections are under threat. Ashley K. Shelton, founder, president and CEO of the Power Coalition, writing in MSNBC, explains how Louisiana is at the epicenter of a legal battle that could dismantle the landmark law:
After initially defending a recently created map that added a second minority-majority congressional district, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has executed a troubling bait-and-switch. She has pivoted to argue that race-conscious redistricting is itself unconstitutional under the 14th and 15th amendments. This is not just a reversal — it is a direct challenge to the Voting Rights Act itself. If her view prevails, Louisiana v. Callais could become the case that dismantles one of the last remaining protections for minority voters in America.
Shelton explains how Louisiana officials are trying to interpret the 14th and 15th Amendments – passed during Reconstruction to enshrine rights for Black Americans into law – in ways that could dilute the right of Black voters to elect candidates of their choice:
The stakes could not be higher. The question is not only whether Black voters in Louisiana will receive fair representation. It is whether the United States will continue to honor the hard-won protections of the Voting Rights Act — or allow them to be erased under the guise of constitutional purity.
The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Alyse Pfeil has a good explainer of the Callais case and the legal concepts before the Court:
“On the one hand, the 14th and 15th Amendments forbid the government from making decisions, including about voting, on the basis of race,” said (Michael Gilbert, an election law expert at the University of Virginia). “At the same time, we have this Voting Rights Act. And what this Voting Rights Act requires states to do under certain circumstances is make decisions, for example about districting, on the basis of race. “So there’s a tension here. The 14th and 15th Amendments say don’t make decisions on the basis of race. And the Voting Rights Act says under certain circumstances, you absolutely must make decisions on the basis of race.”
Black women hit hard by federal firings
President Donald Trump’s termination of thousands of federal jobs has disproportionately targeted positions held by Black women. Other administration policies that target diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which have been adopted in the private sector, are also causing job losses for this demographic. While white and Hispanic women both saw employment increases over the last five months, Black women lost 319,000 jobs. The New York Times’ Erica L. Green reports:
Experts attribute those job losses, in large part, to Mr. Trump’s cuts to federal agencies where Black women are highly concentrated. Ms. [Katica] Roy said that with the exception of the pandemic, Black women have never seen such staggering losses in employment. And over the last decade, the experiences of that population have consistently signaled what is to come for others.“Black women are the canaries in the coal mine, the exclusion happens to them first,” Ms. Roy said. “And if any other cohort thinks it’s not coming for them, they’re wrong. This is a warning, and it’s a stark one.”
While the federal government’s human resources arm has stopped disseminating demographic and other workforce data for agencies, independent research shows where firings are being concentrated:
(A) report published by the National Women’s Law Center, which compiled and analyzed the now-deleted O.P.M. data, showed that government agencies that were targeted for the deepest cuts had employed the highest percentages of women and people of color. Both populations also made up large portions of independent agencies, like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, that Mr. Trump has targeted, the report found. According to a New York Times tracker of Mr. Trump’s cuts, agencies where minorities and women were the majority of the work force, such as the Department of Education and U.S.A.I.D., were targeted for the largest work force reductions or complete elimination.
U.S. kids less likely to reach adulthood
American babies and children are nearly twice as likely to die before reaching adulthood than their counterparts in other developed countries. That’s according to a new study from a team of researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and UCLA. Stateline’s Anna Claire Vollers explains the two leading causes of deaths:
For babies, the two causes of death with the biggest gaps between the U.S. and the other countries were prematurity — being born too early — and sudden unexpected infant death. For children and teens, the biggest gaps were in firearm-related incidents and car crashes. Since 2020, gun violence has been the leading cause of death for U.S. children and teens. Firearm death rates among U.S. kids have more than doubled since 2013. Many of the deaths from prematurity, firearms and sudden unexplained infant death are preventable, three physicians argued in an op-ed published after the new report. Those three causes of death are up to four times more likely among Black youth than their white counterparts.
Another shutdown showdown
Congress returns to work today after a monthlong summer vacation, and has less than four weeks to reach a funding agreement that avoids a government shutdown. Most insiders believe Congress will coalesce around a short-term funding extension, known as a continuing resolution. But as the Washington Post’s team explains, there are many factors, including the need for bipartisan agreement in the Senate, that threatens this option:
But Democrats — angry from months of party-line maneuvers from the White House and congressional Republicans — haven’t settled on a strategy. Also, Republicans are divided on whether to support a short-term extension, as many deficit-minded lawmakers insist they will only support regular appropriations bills that cover the entire next fiscal year or a full-year funding extension for the whole government. That idea is not popular with Democrats, who argue it effectively cuts spending because of inflation. Further complicating matters, President Donald Trump moved last week to rescind nearly $5 billion in foreign aid without congressional approval, infuriating Democrats who warned it would make it harder to strike a deal.
Number of the Day
60% – Percentage of Americans who say the decline in the share of unionized workers has been bad for the United States. In 2024, 9.9% of workers belonged to a union, compared to 20.1% in 1983. (Source: Pew Research Center)