Voting rights advocate and legal crusader Marc Elias sounded the alarm about the conversation before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday about the Voting Rights Act.
Elias said the case has been heard before, but in this form, "the stakes are enormous."
"The fact is that the Supreme Court of the United States heard a case today that, to be clear, no one brought to them," he said. "The case that was brought to them out of Louisiana was argued last term, and did not challenge the underlying constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act."
He recalled waiting for a ruling, only for the Supreme Court to decide it "wanted to hear a different case."
"So, it ordered the parties to brief and re-argue a broader question — the question of whether or not section two of the Voting Rights Act remains constitutional, and if so, how does it get severely limited?" Elias explained.
That's not what the case actually deals with.
"Make no mistake, I never predict with certainty what the outcome of cases will be. You never know what the dynamics are among the justices, but this was a case that was set up to do immense damage to the crown jewel of American democracy, which is what Democrats and Republicans have called the Voting Rights Act for decades," said Elias.
What he heard from the court today, he said, was a slate of conservative justices ready to eliminate those key provisions.
"Everyone needs to be clear-eyed that that is what the court is poised to do. And if it does so, it will have a dramatically detrimental effect to Black and Hispanic and other minority voting rights. And it will also potentially tilt the balance of power going into the 2026 midterm elections."
