LDF Statement on Anniversary of Shelby County v. Holder Ruling

Read a PDF of our statement here.

On June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County v. Holder - which landed the first blow in a coordinated assault against the Voting Rights Act (VRA) - dismantled the federal preclearance framework within the VRA that helped stop discrimination in voting before it could occur. This decision opened the door for dozens of oppressive voting laws across the country and is directly linked to hundreds of polling place closures in areas that were previously covered under preclearance, among other acts of voter suppression.

The Shelby County decision may have been the first blow, but it was not the last. The fight for the VRA drastically intensified with the rulings in Brnovich v. DNC, which curtailed how Section 2 of the VRA applies to discriminatory voting policies, and Louisiana v. Callais, which eliminated the remaining VRA safeguards against discrimination in redistricting and completed the work of hollowing out the protections afforded by the VRA.

On the anniversary of the calamitous Shelby County decision, LDF President and Director-Counsel Janai Nelson issued the following statement:

"In the wake of the Callais decision, the anniversary of the disastrous decision in Shelby County v. Holder is a reminder that destroying Black political power has always been the aim of those who wish to see the promise of our multiracial democracy fail. Thirteen years after it began dismantling the majority of one of the most transformative pieces of civil rights legislation in our nation's history, the Supreme Court willfully persists in ignoring the reality of racial discrimination in voting in favor of a strategic myth that it no longer exists.

"In the span of a single generation, Black people in the United States were granted and then callously stripped of robust voting rights protections and the tools that afforded them political power and full dignity as citizens.

"Throughout the decades of attacks on voting freedoms, LDF has promoted, defended, and protected the rights of Black people. We have mobilized, organized, and energized Black voters and allies to create and protect a democracy that works on behalf of all its people. We will continue to fight for civil and voting rights to ensure this country delivers on the promise of a multiracial democracy that respects the humanity and dignity of all. This begins with electing a Congress that will reverse the devastating harms of this Supreme Court by reforming the court and passing robust voting rights legislation fit for a functioning American democracy."

To learn more about Shelby County v. Holder, visit here.

In the years following the Shelby County decision, many states were inspired by the decades of success of the federal preclearance program and adopted state-level programs that require counties or cities with a history of discrimination to obtain approval before making changes to voting practices. States like New York, Connecticut, and Washington have implemented these programs while other state legislatures are currently undergoing the process to pass and enact State Voting Rights Acts (State VRAs) with preclearance provisions. To learn more about State VRAs, visit here.

To learn more about LDF's voting rights work, visit here.

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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation's first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF's archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.