Why Conservatives Are Trying to Kill the Voting Rights Act
From Reveal by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX
May 27, 2026 · 27 min
About this episode
The episode discusses the implications of the Supreme Court's decision to narrow the Voting Rights Act and its impact on racial discrimination in voting.
More To The Story : The Voting Rights Act is widely considered one of the most effective laws in prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. One of its key provisions has long allowed states to take race into account when drawing voting maps to ensure that nonwhite voters have electoral power. But earlier this year, the Supreme Court narrowed that provision. In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan described the court’s decision as the “now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act.” “The notion that everyone deserves equal access to the ballot, that everyone deserves equal access to elections, that one person ought to mean one vote, and that there ought to be some measure of political equality has never really sat well with the political right in this country,” says Jamelle Bouie, a political columnist for t he New York Times . On this week’s More To The Story , Bouie and host Al Letson talk about how the Voting Rights Act has been defanged by the Supreme Court, why the Democratic Party is made up of “a bunch of weenies,” and why he believes the country is experiencing a constitutional emergency. This is an update of an episode that originally aired in August 2025. Producer…
People in this episode
Host: Al Letson
Guest: Jamelle Bouie
Topics covered
- Voting Rights Act
- racial discrimination
- Supreme Court
- political equality
- constitutional emergency
Keywords
- Voting Rights Act
- Supreme Court
- racial discrimination
- political equality
- constitutional emergency
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: New York Times, Supreme Court, Democratic Party, Center for Investigative Reporting, PRX
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