“I Voted Today” stickers for Nov. 5, 2024 voters. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
A U.S. Supreme Court case scrutinized for its potential impact on Black voters and congressional redistricting could also have consequences for the voting rights of Native Americans, according to advocates in South Dakota.
The pending case, Louisiana v. Callais, is a challenge to the legality of a majority-Black congressional district. The court is using the case to determine whether Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act remains constitutional. The section prohibits voting laws or procedures that result in a denial or abridgement of voting rights due to a person’s “race or color” or membership in a language minority.
During arguments earlier this month, lawyers for Louisiana and the Trump administration said the consideration of race in the redistricting process violates constitutional requirements to treat all people equally.
Rosebud Sioux Tribe member OJ Semans, co-executive director of the South Dakota-based Four Directions voting rights group, said advocates for Native American voters would not have won any voting rights lawsuits in South Dakota without Section 2. They’ve used its protections to win better registration services in closer proximity to Native American voters, and to force redrawn county and state voting districts with more equitable representation for Native Americans (Section 2 doesn’t impact congressional districts in South Dakota, because its low population means it has only one member of the U.S. House who represents the entire state).
“In the past 10 years, I think Native Americans have filed more civil rights lawsuits on voting than any other organization or race,” Semans said. “And they have continually been able to win victories that would provide equality for Natives throughout Indian Country.”
Four Directions consultant Bret Healy, a former executive director of the South Dakota Democratic Party, warned that if the court undermines the law, Republican lawmakers could redraw legislative districts in South Dakota to disadvantage Native American voters, who’ve traditionally leaned Democratic. He said lawmakers “can go back to just making at-large districts where the white vote totally overwhelms by 70 to 30, 80 to 20 margins.”
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