Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the chamber’s top Democrat, condemned a Supreme Court decision upholding Arizona’s new voter laws, calling the ruling “jaw-dropping” and “unconscionable.”
Schumer, a senator from New York, issued the statement shortly after the Supreme Court announced it had ruled 6-3 to uphold Arizona’s laws restricting where provisional ballots can be cast and banning ballot collectors.
“If you believe in open and fair democracy and the principle of one person, one vote, today is one of the darkest days in all of the Supreme Court’s history,” Schumer said.
Democrats argued Arizona’s laws disproportionately hurt minority and low-income voters, but the Supreme Court disagreed in a ruling that is likely to ensure the survival of other state laws that are aimed at protecting voter integrity.
The high court ruling also sends a strong signal that a Democratic-authored election overhaul bill that broadly expands voter access will face legal trouble.
The Democratic bill is aimed at undoing many of the voter integrity laws that states are implementing.
Schumer accused the high court of gutting the Voting Rights Act, which was written to ensure equal access to voting.
Schumer said in the statement that it was “unconscionable” that the high court did not “properly respond to a wave of restrictive and discriminatory laws” that states have been implementing in the past several years.
Senate Republicans last month blocked the broad election overhaul bill authored by Democrats. They said the partisan measure would undermine voter integrity and that it was designed to ensure Democratic victories in future elections.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, praised the ruling and blamed “activists” for attempting to overturn the Arizona laws on the basis of claiming racial discrimination.
“Today, the Supreme Court affirmed that protections of the right to vote remain strong and that states are rightly empowered to administer and protect America’s elections,” McConnell said.
