Issued April 29, 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. — April Verrett, President of the Service Employees International Union, today issued the following statement:

"Today, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and handed politicians a roadmap to erase the voting power of Black, Latino, API, and Indigenous communities while hiding behind the excuse of 'partisanship.'

For sixty years, the Voting Rights Act was the last line of defense against racially gerrymandered maps designed to keep Black and brown Americans out of power. Today, six justices dismantled that defense. They didn't just gut a law — they told millions of working people that their votes are a problem to be managed, not a voice to be heard.

SEIU's members — Black workers, brown workers, immigrant workers, the people who keep this country running — will not be managed. We will not be mapped out of our democracy. Make no mistake, every politician who draws a discriminatory map, and every justice who blessed them with the right to do it, will answer to us at the ballot box.