Attorneys Warn of Threats to Voting Rights on 60th Anniversary of VRA

Panel calls for urgent federal and state action to protect access to the ballot and defend against voter suppression.

Washington, D.C. (July 30, 2025) — Leading civil and voting rights litigators and advocates spoke Tuesday about next week’s 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act as well as the critical challenges voters of color face today. 

In a virtual briefing hosted by the Voting Rights Working Group — a consortium of 11 leading organizations dedicated to voting rights litigation on behalf of communities of color — panelists shared that the freedom to vote remains under coordinated and escalating attack. They emphasized the critical role of litigation, grassroots mobilization, and federal and state-level reform in defending and advancing access to the ballot, and encouraged the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which was reintroduced yesterday in Congress.

Panelists called for renewed federal protections, robust private enforcement mechanisms, and continued collaboration between litigation, advocacy, and community partners.

• “The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was not a gift from the powerful. It was the result of relentless grassroots advocacy and a direct response to the courage and sacrifice of those who marched on Bloody Sunday. But today the ‘crown jewel’ of the civil rights movement stands as a shredded shield—gutted, under attack, and left inadequate to protect the very voters it was designed to serve,” said Todd A. Cox, Associate Director-Counsel at the Legal Defense Fund (LDF). “What’s happening to the most vulnerable among us—whether in voting, policing, or housing—is a canary in the mine. When one community’s rights are threatened, the entire democracy is at risk. That is why Congress must move with all urgency to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act into law. Our democracy cannot wait.”

• “Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is the most effective alternative dispute resolution tool ever enacted in federal law—pre-clearance stopped violations before they occurred and did so at reduced cost for all. Restoring preclearance is the clearest path forward to protect our democracy,” said Thomas A. Saenz, President and General Counsel at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “The communities protected by the Voting Rights Act are now on the cusp of real political power—and that’s exactly why we are seeing the same old patterns of voter suppression resurface. Today’s fight is not just for representation—it’s to stop those in power from embedding themselves as the population’s views evolve.”

• “The Voting Rights Act is what made democracy real for millions. Without it, Asian Americans would still be disenfranchised by literacy tests and language barriers. Today, we’re seen as perpetual foreigners—but the ballot box is how we assert our place in America,” said John C. Yang, President and Executive Director at Asian Americans Advancing Justice. “We must pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act—not only to restore what was lost, but to modernize the law for the threats communities face today. Democracy must evolve, or it will erode.”

• “We are living through a level 10 alert: the Eighth Circuit has gutted Section 2, the heart of the Voting Rights Act. Without private enforcement, the VRA may not have a future at all,” said Jacqueline De León, Senior Staff Attorney at Native American Rights Fund. “Native Americans still face 1960s-era barriers—traveling 100 miles to register, lacking access to voting on reservations, and encountering racial hostility in border towns. This is not just voter suppression. It is voter exclusion by design.”

• “Having the right to vote means nothing if voters aren’t able to actually access the ballot box, able to cast their ballot, or their votes count less than others simply based on what district they live in,” said Mitchell Brown, Senior Voting Rights Counsel at Southern Coalition for Social Justice. “Frederick Douglass stated that power concedes nothing without a demand, and voters must demand fairness and equity in voting rights, and this country must rise to the occasion to protect voting rights and to truly ensure that we live up to the democratic ideals that we were founded upon.”

A full recording of the panel discussion is available here.

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