| Houston, Texas — Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee has joined a national fight for voting rights in an Arkansas redistricting case. County Attorney Menefee, along with more than 40 other local government leaders from cities and counties across the country, has signed onto an amicus brief in Arkansas State Conference NAACP v. Arkansas Board of Apportionment. The case challenges Arkansas’s state House map for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) by undermining the voting strength of Black Arkansans. Last month, a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that concluded voters may not sue to protect their voting rights under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. “The Voting Rights Act is critical to ensuring equal access to the ballot box, and the Court’s ruling undoes years of precedent affirming folks’ ability to challenge discriminatory redistricting practices in court,” said County Attorney Menefee. “The results of this fight will have wide-reaching implications, potentially closing the path that has been used to protect voting rights for decades. We cannot sit by and let the courts neuter the VRA and put our right to fair representation on the chopping block.” The brief has been filed in support of a petition for a rehearing in front of the entire Eight Circuit Court of Appeals. ### |