May 2, 2026
Dear Friends,
For the past 16 months, Americans have been paying the price for the disastrous policies pursued by Donald Trump and his GOP allies. From ripping health care away from millions to gutting the essential services families rely on, every action taken by Republicans since their return to power has been calculated to benefit their billionaire donors at the expense of working people. Just this week, for example, House Republicans advanced a farm bill that further cuts food assistance for hungry Americans while rubberstamping Trump’s illegal tariffs.
Republicans know the American people are fed up with their cost-raising, benefit-slashing agenda. But instead of responding to public outcry and changing course, GOP lawmakers have chosen to shield themselves and this administration from all accountability — abandoning their responsibility to their constituents and undermining the very foundations of our democracy. Those attacks escalated further on Wednesday, when the Republican-dominated Supreme Court issued a 6-3 party-line decision that eviscerated what remained of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and reversed decades of progress that generations of Americans fought and died for.
For more than a decade, the Court’s right-wing justices have steadily chipped away at the protections enshrined in the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Ever since the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder struck down provisions requiring some state and local governments to obtain federal approval before making changes to their voting laws, Republicans across the nation have initiated a “race to the bottom” to determine just how far the Court would allow them to go in suppressing the vote — particularly in communities of color. This week’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais provided an answer, giving states free rein to enact gerrymanders that effectively disenfranchise vast swaths of their populations.
Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion — which invalidated a Louisiana congressional map that created a second majority-Black district in order to provide better representation for that state’s large Black community — relied on the perverse logic that actions to protect the rights of communities of color are themselves a form of unconstitutional racial discrimination. Ignoring the reality that the Voting Rights Act was the only thing standing in the way of Republican efforts to silence the voices of marginalized communities, the Court’s majority effectively declared racism a thing of the past and the VRA’s protections no longer necessary. This deeply misguided decision calls to mind Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissenting opinion in Shelby County v. Holder, where she argued that eliminating civil rights protections because they have been successful in their goals “is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”
In her own dissenting opinion in Louisiana v. Callais, Justice Elena Kagan aptly described the Voting Rights Act as “one of the most consequential, efficacious, and amply justified exercises of federal legislative power in our Nation’s history.” But now, after decades of Republican diatribes against judges who “legislate from the bench,” six right-wing justices have unilaterally rendered that landmark legislation “all but a dead letter.”
This decision is a profound setback for our multiracial democracy. The Court's actions have undermined one of the last remaining tools protecting voters from racial discrimination in voting and redistricting, undoing hard-won victories that brought real representation to communities of color for the first time in American history. But this is the not the end of our fight for free and fair elections — it is only the beginning.
In the months and years ahead, we must keep fighting to enact stronger voter protections through legislation like the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. We must continue pushing back against racial discrimination in the lower courts. We must aggressively pursue fair district maps that guarantee proper representation for communities of color, and we must seek reforms to rein in the unchecked power of this right-wing Supreme Court. Above all, we must continue to mobilize and exercise our fundamental right to vote — because if your vote didn’t matter, they wouldn’t be trying so hard to take it away.
As always, thank you for reading.
Your friend,
DID YOU KNOW?
My office and I are working to make sure you remain informed with the latest updates and recommendations from governments and agencies. With that in mind, here is some information that may be of interest to you:
- The Capital District Regional Planning Commission (CDRPC) is launching the Capital Region Climate Action Webinar Series 2026, a monthly webinar series highlighting key topics from the Regional Climate Action Plan.
- Designed for municipal officials, planners, and community members, the series will explore practical strategies that communities can use to take meaningful local climate action.
- Each session will focus on a different topic related to climate resilience, sustainable development, and clean energy planning.
- The webinars will be held on the first Wednesday of each month from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM.
- This month’s webinar, to be held on Wednesday, May 6th at 12:00 PM, will focus on battery storage and solar power and provide an overview of battery energy storage systems (BESS) and large-scale solar.
- Click HERE to register for this webinar, learn more about the series, and view upcoming topics!
