[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1384 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1384
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Congress must
urgently take all appropriate measures to guarantee civil rights and
fair political representation to all Americans.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 24, 2026
Mr. Casar (for himself, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Espaillat, Ms.
Meng, and Mr. Johnson of Georgia) submitted the following resolution;
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Congress must
urgently take all appropriate measures to guarantee civil rights and
fair political representation to all Americans.
Whereas, in Louisiana v. Callais, by a 6-3 decision, the far-right majority of
the Supreme Court effectively gutted what remained of section 2 of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 and ``laid the groundwork for the largest
reduction in minority representation since the era following
Reconstruction'' which ``threatens a half-century's worth of gains in
voting equality'', according to Justice Kagan's dissent;
Whereas the Callais decision is the latest development in a years-long campaign
by the Supreme Court to undermine the Voting Rights Act, including its
2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which in practice precluded
the use of the Act's most important enforcement mechanism, whereby
States and localities with an extensive history of racially
discriminatory voting practices submitted changes in their election laws
and policies or electoral district maps to the Federal Government for
advance review before putting them into effect;
Whereas the Callais decision has ushered in a wave of extreme partisan
gerrymandering that could swing over a dozen congressional seats, tip
the balance of power in the United States House of Representatives,
suppress the political power of voters of color nationwide, and create a
new Jim Crow reality for Black Americans in the South with respect to
the evisceration of Congressional Black representation;
Whereas, immediately following the Callais decision, Louisiana suspended the
United States House primary, disenfranchising tens of thousands of
voters who had already cast ballots in order to redraw the election maps
in a state where one in three residents is Black;
Whereas, in 1965, the American South had not a single Black representative in
the United States Congress due to Supreme Court rulings beginning in
1876 that dismantled civil and electoral protections for Blacks in the
South, denying their right to the franchise and effectively nullifying
the 15th Amendment for nearly a century;
Whereas Congress has a moral imperative to remedy the decadeslong assault on
Americans' civil rights and quickly enact voting rights protections, by
removing what former President Barack Obama called the ``Jim Crow
relic'' of the Senate filibuster, which was used by Strom Thurmond, a
segregationist, for 24 hours and 18 minutes to speak in opposition to
the Civil Rights Act;
Whereas post-Callais partisan gerrymandering disenfranchises voters of color
such as Latino, Black, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific
Islander communities living in multiracial districts across the United
States;
Whereas decades of progress in expanding Latino, Black, Asian American, Native
Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander political participation and
representation have been made possible through the protections of
section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the weakening of those
protections threatens to reverse hard-fought gains that have enabled
those communities to secure fair representation and greater inclusion in
the Nation's civic and political institutions;
Whereas decisions rolling back voting rights, reproductive freedoms, workers'
rights, environmental protections and commonsense gun laws, and
dramatically expanding presidential immunity while permitting racial
discrimination, have put the Court out of step with the American people
while enriching wealthy right-wing political donors and corporate
interests;
Whereas the Supreme Court corrupted American elections by greenlighting the
unlimited flow of dark money in Citizens United v. Federal Election
Commission and sided with Republicans to allow partisan gerrymandering
in Common Cause v. Rucho;
Whereas public confidence in the Supreme Court is at record lows, with half of
Americans holding an unfavorable opinion of the Court, as rightwing
Justices have accepted lavish vacations and gifts from billionaires and
failed to make proper disclosures of these and other financial
interests, unbound by an enforceable code of ethics;
Whereas the Court's far-right supermajority poses a serious threat to any future
attempts by Congress to realize the promise of a multiracial democracy,
rein in executive power, champion workers' rights, protect voting
rights, and restore and strengthen the Federal protections against
racial discrimination in the Voting Rights Act;
Whereas the Court's rightwing majority has empowered and emboldened President
Trump's attempts to hold on to and expand his power, enabling
authoritarian efforts to dismantle Federal agencies, unlawfully fire
independent agency heads and civil servants without cause, rescind
congressionally appropriated funds, ban transgender servicemembers from
the military, and racially profile suspected noncitizens; and
Whereas Congress, as the primary branch of Government and the one most closely
reflecting the American people's democratic will, has a mandate to act
boldly to rebuild Americans' trust in the Supreme Court and democracy:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives supports--
(1) the adoption by the House of Representatives of
legislation to restore and strengthen the Voting Rights Act of
1965 (52 U.S.C. 10101 note; Public Law 89-110) to end racial
discrimination in voting and elected representation and ensure
that all eligible Americans are able to vote; and
(2) under the next prodemocracy governing moment--
(A) the elimination of the 60-vote threshold in the
Senate; and
(B) enacting structural changes to the Supreme
Court, taking into consideration a wide range of
reforms, such as establishing a binding judicial code
of ethics for Supreme Court Justices, term limits for
Supreme Court Justices, and expanding the size of the
Supreme Court.
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