For democracy, June is the cruelest month
In recent years, June has been the time when the high court delivers its most devastating blows against individual rights and the rule of law.
Opinion
Read in-depth op-eds on voting rights and democracy from our contributors, guest authors and Democracy Docket's founder, Marc Elias. Use the drop-down menu to organize by topic.
Exclusive: New data shows US lags far behind peers on voting access
Nearly every other wealthy democracy has taken affirmative steps to make voting easy. In the U.S., it all depends on where you live.
Callais just gutted the promise of equal representation. But we need to keep fighting for multiracial democracy
This is how the Voting Rights Act died: not in a fair fight, but in a case engineered to produce a predetermined result.
Alabama keeps telling us what it thinks democracy should look like
Alabama’s decision to appeal makes clear that the state’s leaders believe there should be no meaningful curbs on their ability to eviscerate Black political power.
Congress defeated Southern resistance to the Voting Rights Act once; it can do it again
Voters today must demand representatives who will once again restore voting rights and rein in an antidemocratic Court.
To protect voting rights after Callais, we need to invest in red states
The deeper lesson of Callais is not just that we must fight back. It’s that the people who actually live in these states have been fighting all along and all alone.
Purcell is not a legal principle. It’s a double standard
At the heart of these cases is the Purcell principle — the idea that courts should avoid changing voting or election rules too close to an election.
Destroying the Voting Rights Act wasn’t just a legal ruling. It was a moral statement
The Court’s action to dismantle Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act wasn’t in isolation. It is part of a broader recalibration of rights in this country.
The GOP lit the match. The Supreme Court banned the fire department
The foundation of our democracy is burning to the ground. It did not begin with Donald Trump, but he stoked the flames. The conservative Roberts Court did not light the match, but it has repeatedly declared fire hydrants, sprinklers and smoke detectors illegal.
The Supreme Court called it chaos then. What does it call it now?
The shadow docket has grown in scope and importance in a range of areas of the law. But none has been as important or as overlooked as the area of redistricting.
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