Hakeem Jeffries

The top congressional Democrats have denounced the Supreme Court’s Wednesday ruling on the Voting Rights Act.

Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, the respective minority leaders of the House and Senate, described the court’s decision in statements as a critical blow to the legislation, which protected minority voters from discriminatory legal practices. The court’s conservative majority ruled that states can gerrymander – and dilute minority voting power – as long as they aren’t trying to discriminate.

“The unfettered right to vote is central to our great democracy,” Jeffries said. “Instead of protecting the ability for American citizens to freely cast their ballot, Republican extremists have embraced voter suppression and racial gerrymandering to desperately cling to power.”

Justice Samuel Alito said in the majority’s opinion that any consideration of race in governmental decisions, like creating congressional districts that represent minority constituents, is unconstitutional.

“Our question necessarily implicated the correctness of our longstanding assumption that compliance with the Voting Rights Act may justify what the Constitution generally condemns: the use of race as a basis for government action,” Alito wrote. “This question was pending in several lower-court cases, but in light of the potential impact of those cases on upcoming elections, we concluded that resolution of the question in this suit was appropriate.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling effectively ends the Voting Rights Act’s protections for minority voters, who will likely be targeted in Republican redistricting efforts this year and in the future.

“At a moment when our democracy demands vigilance, this ruling moves us further from its promise,” Schumer said in a statement. “The commitment of equal representation has been broken before – and every time, Americans have forced it back into law. Senate Democrats will fight it once again to reverse this awful decision.”