California's senior U.S. senator, Alex Padilla, condemned the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v Callais ruling at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on May 20 and held the Senate floor with Democrats to oppose the Supreme Court decision that will effectively eliminate another key component of the landmark Voting Rights Act.
“In 1965, Congress enacted section two of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibited any election practice that denied or a bridge the right of any citizen to vote on account of race or color. When the Supreme Court then interpreted section two to require proof of intentional discrimination, Congress responded pretty unambiguously. It revised section two to prohibit any election practice that resulted in the denial or abridgement of a citizen's right to vote on account of race or color. There was no real question as to what that language meant,” Padilla said.
As California's Secretary of State from 2015-2021, Padilla oversaw the state's elections. He is an original cosponsor of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act . His speech to the Senate, addressing the presiding senator as "Mr. President," is below.