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Ruth Greenwood

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    Voting

    Why it's time for every state to enact its own voting rights law

    Ruth Greenwood
    Roxana Norouzi
    July 16, 2020
    Voting Rights Act protest

    Because the Supreme Court stripped the "preclearance" section of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, states must enact their own laws to protect the rights of communities of color, according to Greenwood and Norouzi.

    Win McNamee/Getty Images

    Greenwood is co-director for voting rights and redistricting at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. Norouzi is deputy director of OneAmerica, an immigrant and refugee advocacy organization in Washington state.

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    Redistricting

    The human cost of the gerrymandering decision

    Ruth Greenwood
    July 03, 2019
    The human cost of the partisan gerrymandering decision

    "What is the point?" Wendy Sue Johnson (center) said of attending meeting with legislators after a partisan gerrymander went into effect. "No one is listening to us."

    Campaign Legal Center

    Greenwood is co-director of voting rights and redistricting for the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit government watchdog.

    Five Supreme Court justices declared last week that though partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional and a scourge on our democracy, the court is both unwilling and unable to step in and police this terrible practice. That's right – extreme gerrymanders, including those that benefit Democrats in Maryland and Republicans in North Carolina, are going to continue through 2020, and likely get worse when the redistricting maps are redrawn in 2021.

    I have been litigating to end partisan gerrymandering for the past five years, including representing plaintiffs from Wisconsin in Gill v. Whitford, thecase that went to the Supreme Court last year, and plaintiffs from North Carolina in Rucho v. League of Women Voters of North Carolina, which was decided last week at the Supreme Court.

    Last year the court told us in Whitford that it wanted us to develop further evidence to explain the harms to individual voters of the Wisconsin gerrymander. Consequently, my team has spent the last 12 months hearing the tragic stories of Wisconsin voters who were harmed by the extreme gerrymander and now feel left out, left behind and totally ignored by their legislators. At the least it is depressing; in many cases it brings me to tears.

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