Two Supreme Court rulings on elections last month brought on a wave of cheers from voting organizers and democracy experts, who believe the cases will uphold key democratic norms going into the 2024 presidential election — but they still worry about an ongoing erosion of access to the ballot box.

Legal experts had been closely observing the potential outcomes of the cases under a new and more conservative court: Allen v. Milligan – a case about the Voting Rights Act that was decided on June 8 – and Moore v. Harper, a case about a fringe theory on state legislatures’ power in running elections that was decided on June 27. A majority of the justices ultimately tossed out the challenge to the pivotal 1965 law that prohibits racial discrimination in voting and rejected the fringe theory.

“The right to vote and to have your vote counted — one person, one vote — is central for protecting the other rights that Americans care about, including gender equity, including LGBTQ rights,” said Eliza Sweren-Becker, counsel in the democracy program of the Brennan Center for Justice. “When people are less able to access their voting rights, that means they’re less able to protect the other things that they care about, to protect the other rights that they hold dear.”

Sindy Benavides, executive director of the Latino Victory Fund, called the back-to-back rulings “a moment of reflection” on the long fight toward a multi-racial democracy. She noted the historic impact of Reconstruction-era amendments that aimed to establish racial equality in the Constitution.

“I think of all the individuals that have fought for 150 years so that every eligible citizen who has that constitutional right to vote is able to vote regardless of their race,” she said. “For us, we were closely watching the SCOTUS decisions, because clearly they have an impact on elections. And for us, it was a deep sigh of relief.”

Read the full article about voting policy by Barbara Rodriguez at The 19th.