Protecting Minority Representation in an Era of Political Polarization and the Hollowing Out of Voting Rights Protections

The United States Supreme Court has hollowed out various voting rights protections, leaving all voters—minority and nonminority—less protected in a politically polarized America. Surprisingly, the Court has continued to protect representation for minority race voters who live in racially polarized areas. However, minority race voters risk losing that protection, typically provided through majority-minority districts authorized under the Voting Rights Act, if they build cross-racial coalitions with their neighbors. Under the Court’s interpretation of the VRA, cross-racial voting coalitions may be less protected than local majorities comprised of a single race of voters.

The loss of such protection could leave their representation subject to the mercies of politically polarized national and state legislatures that may wish to, and may be allowed to, silence their voices and those of their cross-racial political allies. If America wishes to guarantee the voices of minority voters are heard when those voices are part of cross-racial coalitions, courts may need to revisit how minority political voices can be protected. For example, they may do so broadly by reconsidering the reach of the Fifteenth Amendment’s bar on race-based limitations on the right to vote or somewhat narrowly by rethinking the viability of voting structures—such as multimember districting—that were largely abandoned when used in the past to limit representation of minority voters but could be repurposed to help those voters have their voices heard today.