We speak with Kristen Clarke, general counsel of the NAACP, about growing threats to democracy in the United States following the Supreme Court’s gutting of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. Republican lawmakers across the South are responding to the ruling by racing to redraw their congressional maps, which is expected to lead to a historic drop in the number of Black representatives in Congress.
“The Supreme Court’s devastating decision in the Louisiana v. Callais case has really turned our country upside down,” says Clarke, who previously served as assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department in the Biden administration. She says that given the history of racial discrimination in the United States, particularly in the Deep South, “it is unsurprising” to see lawmakers “race at lightning speed to eradicate the gains that have been made over the decades.”
Clarke also discusses President Trump’s efforts to take federal control of elections in at least eight states, which Clarke says is part of his administration’s goal to “lock out certain voters” and commit “mass disenfranchisement.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Democracy Now! | Radio Free (2026-05-12T12:15:14+00:00) A Return to Jim Crow? Ex-DOJ Civil Rights Chief Kristen Clarke Denounces Gutting of Voting Rights Act. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2026/05/12/a-return-to-jim-crow-ex-doj-civil-rights-chief-kristen-clarke-denounces-gutting-of-voting-rights-act/
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