Leahy Leads 48 Senators In Introducing John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

WASHINGTON (TUESDAY, Oct. 5, 2021) – U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Tuesday along with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and 45 other Senators introduced legislation to restore the landmark Voting Rights Act (VRA) and stop the spreading scourge of voter suppression.  The legislation – the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act – is named for an icon of the Civil Rights movement, the late Congressman John Lewis, and reflects an update to legislation introduced in the last Congress.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s damaging Shelby County decision in 2013 – which crippled the federal government’s ability under the 1965 Voting Rights Act to prevent discriminatory changes to voting laws and procedures – states across the country have unleashed a torrent of voter suppression schemes that have systematically disenfranchised tens of thousands of American voters.  The Supreme Court’s more recent Brnovich decision earlier this year delivered yet another body blow to the Voting Rights Act, by making it significantly harder for plaintiffs to win lawsuits under the landmark law against discriminatory voting laws or procedures.