{"id":124232,"date":"2008-07-16T06:28:14","date_gmt":"2008-07-16T10:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/about-voting-rights-project"},"modified":"2025-12-25T21:46:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T02:46:46","slug":"about-voting-rights-project","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/about-voting-rights-project","title":{"rendered":"About the Voting Rights Project"},"menu_order":0,"template":"","foia_agency":[],"foia_document_type":[],"foia_legal_authority":[],"foia_district":[],"foia_records_collected":[],"foia_fbi_mappings":[],"class_list":["post-124232","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"subtitle":"","date":"20130520","document_type":"other","foia_collection":null,"release_date":null,"description":"Established in 1965, VRP has worked to protect the gains in political participation won by voters of color since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). Since its inception, the Voting Rights Project has litigated hundreds of voting rights cases, and has aggressively and successfully challenged efforts to suppress voting or to dilute minority voting strength.\r\n\r\nThe Project\u2019s mission is to build and defend an accessible, inclusive, and equitable democracy free from racial discrimination. The Project has three principles: (1) all Americans should be eligible to vote; (2) voting should be free and easy; and (3) all people should count equally.\r\n\r\nThe Project employs an integrated advocacy approach, combining legislative advocacy, public education, and litigation, and has active cases in over a dozen states. Its recent docket has included:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>more than 60 lawsuits to protect voters during the 2020 and 2024 elections;<\/li>\r\n \t<li>a pair of cases in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the first Trump Administration's discriminatory census policies:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/department-commerce-v-new-york\"><em>Department of Commerce v. New York<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(successfully challenging an attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census), and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/new-york-immigration-coalition-v-trump\"><em>New York Immigration Coalition v. Trump<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(challenging the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the population count used to apportion the House of Representatives);<\/li>\r\n \t<li>challenges to discriminatory congressional and state legislative maps, including three recent cases in the U.S. Supreme Court:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/callais-v-landry\"><em>Louisiana v. Callais <\/em><\/a>(2025), defending Louisiana's congressional map, which contains two majority-Black districts in compliance with the Voting Rights Act;\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/alexander-v-south-carolina-state-conference-of-the-naacp\">Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(2024), challenging South Carolina\u2019s congressional map as an unconstitutional and starkly racially gerrymandered map; and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/thomas-v-allen-and-milligan-v-merrill\"><em>Allen v. Milligan<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(2023), successfully challenging Alabama\u2019s congressional map as unlawfully diluting the Black voting power under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act;<\/li>\r\n \t<li>challenges to voter purges and documentary proof of citizenship laws;<\/li>\r\n \t<li>and challenges to other new legislation restricting voting rights in states like Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, and Texas.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nThe ACLU Voting Rights Project is currently litigating voter suppression and minority vote dilution cases in over a dozen states, from coast to coast, in every region of the country.\r\n\r\nThe ACLU Voting Rights Project is based at the ACLU National Office in New York, New York.\r\n\r\n<strong>Staff of the Voting Rights Project<\/strong>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/sophia-lin-lakin\">Sophia Lin Lakin<\/a>, Director\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/by\/sarah-brannon\/\">Sarah Brannon<\/a>, Deputy Director\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/adriel-i-cepeda-derieux\">Adriel I. Cepeda Derieux<\/a>, Deputy Director\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/by\/davin-rosborough\/\">Davin Rosborough<\/a>, Deputy Director\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/ming-cheung-2\">Ming Cheung<\/a>, Senior Staff Attorney\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/theresa-j-lee\">Theresa J. Lee<\/a>, Senior Staff Attorney\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/by\/ari-savitzky\">Ari Savitzky<\/a>, Senior Staff Attorney\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/dayton-campbell-harris\">Dayton Campbell-Harris<\/a>, Staff Attorney\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/ethan-herenstein\">Ethan Herenstein<\/a>, Staff Attorney\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/will-hughes\">Will Hughes<\/a>, Staff Attorney\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/megan-keenan\">Megan Keenan<\/a>, Staff Attorney\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/jonathan-topaz\">Jonathan Topaz<\/a>, Staff Attorney\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/jacob-van-leer\">Jacob van Leer<\/a>, Staff Attorney\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/patricia-yan\">Patricia Yan<\/a>, Staff Attorney\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/nina-mckay\">Nina McKay<\/a>, Skadden Fellow\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/clay-pierce\">Clay Pierce<\/a>, Equal Justice Works Fellow\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/molly-garyantes\">Molly Garyantes<\/a>, Paralegal\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/maya-guerra\">Maya Guerra<\/a>, Paralegal\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/daniel-kang\">Daniel Kang<\/a>, Paralegal\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/destiny-ruiz\">Destiny Ruiz<\/a>, Paralegal\r\n\r\n<strong><a href=\"\/voting-rights\">Back to the Voting Rights Project \u00bb<\/a><\/strong>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;","pdf":"","drupal_node_id":"29222","related_affiliates":"","related_issues":[46799],"related_content_documents":"","related_documents":"","foia_tags":{"foia_agency":false,"foia_document_type":false,"foia_legal_authority":false,"foia_records_collected":false,"foia_district":false,"foia_fbi_mapping":false}},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>American Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Established in 1965, VRP has worked to protect the gains in political participation won by voters of color since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). Since its inception, the Voting Rights Project has litigated hundreds of voting rights cases, and has aggressively and successfully challenged efforts to suppress voting or to dilute minority voting strength.  The Project\u2019s mission is to build and defend an accessible, inclusive, and equitable democracy free from racial discrimination. The Project has three principles: (1) all Americans should be eligible to vote; (2) voting should be free and easy; and (3) all people should count equally.  The Project employs an integrated advocacy approach, combining legislative advocacy, public education, and litigation, and has active cases in over a dozen states. Its recent docket has included:   more than 60 lawsuits to protect voters during the 2020 and 2024 elections;  a pair of cases in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the first Trump Administration&#039;s discriminatory census policies:\u00a0Department of Commerce v. New York\u00a0(successfully challenging an attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census), and\u00a0New York Immigration Coalition v. Trump\u00a0(challenging the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the population count used to apportion the House of Representatives);  challenges to discriminatory congressional and state legislative maps, including three recent cases in the U.S. Supreme Court:\u00a0Louisiana v. Callais (2025), defending Louisiana&#039;s congressional map, which contains two majority-Black districts in compliance with the Voting Rights Act;\u00a0Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP\u00a0(2024), challenging South Carolina\u2019s congressional map as an unconstitutional and starkly racially gerrymandered map; and\u00a0Allen v. Milligan\u00a0(2023), successfully challenging Alabama\u2019s congressional map as unlawfully diluting the Black voting power under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act;  challenges to voter purges and documentary proof of citizenship laws;  and challenges to other new legislation restricting voting rights in states like Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, and Texas.  The ACLU Voting Rights Project is currently litigating voter suppression and minority vote dilution cases in over a dozen states, from coast to coast, in every region of the country.  The ACLU Voting Rights Project is based at the ACLU National Office in New York, New York.  Staff of the Voting Rights Project  Sophia Lin Lakin, Director Sarah Brannon, Deputy Director Adriel I. Cepeda Derieux, Deputy Director Davin Rosborough, Deputy Director Ming Cheung, Senior Staff Attorney Theresa J. Lee, Senior Staff Attorney Ari Savitzky, Senior Staff Attorney Dayton Campbell-Harris, Staff Attorney Ethan Herenstein, Staff Attorney Will Hughes, Staff Attorney Megan Keenan, Staff Attorney Jonathan Topaz, Staff Attorney Jacob van Leer, Staff Attorney Patricia Yan, Staff Attorney Nina McKay, Skadden Fellow Clay Pierce, Equal Justice Works Fellow Molly Garyantes, Paralegal Maya Guerra, Paralegal Daniel Kang, Paralegal Destiny Ruiz, Paralegal  Back to the Voting Rights Project \u00bb  &nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"About the Voting Rights Project | American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Established in 1965, VRP has worked to protect the gains in political participation won by voters of color since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). Since its inception, the Voting Rights Project has litigated hundreds of voting rights cases, and has aggressively and successfully challenged efforts to suppress voting or to dilute minority voting strength.  The Project\u2019s mission is to build and defend an accessible, inclusive, and equitable democracy free from racial discrimination. The Project has three principles: (1) all Americans should be eligible to vote; (2) voting should be free and easy; and (3) all people should count equally.  The Project employs an integrated advocacy approach, combining legislative advocacy, public education, and litigation, and has active cases in over a dozen states. Its recent docket has included:   more than 60 lawsuits to protect voters during the 2020 and 2024 elections;  a pair of cases in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the first Trump Administration&#039;s discriminatory census policies:\u00a0Department of Commerce v. New York\u00a0(successfully challenging an attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census), and\u00a0New York Immigration Coalition v. Trump\u00a0(challenging the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the population count used to apportion the House of Representatives);  challenges to discriminatory congressional and state legislative maps, including three recent cases in the U.S. Supreme Court:\u00a0Louisiana v. Callais (2025), defending Louisiana&#039;s congressional map, which contains two majority-Black districts in compliance with the Voting Rights Act;\u00a0Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP\u00a0(2024), challenging South Carolina\u2019s congressional map as an unconstitutional and starkly racially gerrymandered map; and\u00a0Allen v. Milligan\u00a0(2023), successfully challenging Alabama\u2019s congressional map as unlawfully diluting the Black voting power under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act;  challenges to voter purges and documentary proof of citizenship laws;  and challenges to other new legislation restricting voting rights in states like Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, and Texas.  The ACLU Voting Rights Project is currently litigating voter suppression and minority vote dilution cases in over a dozen states, from coast to coast, in every region of the country.  The ACLU Voting Rights Project is based at the ACLU National Office in New York, New York.  Staff of the Voting Rights Project  Sophia Lin Lakin, Director Sarah Brannon, Deputy Director Adriel I. Cepeda Derieux, Deputy Director Davin Rosborough, Deputy Director Ming Cheung, Senior Staff Attorney Theresa J. Lee, Senior Staff Attorney Ari Savitzky, Senior Staff Attorney Dayton Campbell-Harris, Staff Attorney Ethan Herenstein, Staff Attorney Will Hughes, Staff Attorney Megan Keenan, Staff Attorney Jonathan Topaz, Staff Attorney Jacob van Leer, Staff Attorney Patricia Yan, Staff Attorney Nina McKay, Skadden Fellow Clay Pierce, Equal Justice Works Fellow Molly Garyantes, Paralegal Maya Guerra, Paralegal Daniel Kang, Paralegal Destiny Ruiz, Paralegal  Back to the Voting Rights Project \u00bb  &nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/about-voting-rights-project\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-26T02:46:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/about-voting-rights-project\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/about-voting-rights-project\",\"name\":\"About the Voting Rights Project | American Civil Liberties Union\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-07-16T10:28:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-26T02:46:46+00:00\",\"description\":\"Established in 1965, VRP has worked to protect the gains in political participation won by voters of color since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). Since its inception, the Voting Rights Project has litigated hundreds of voting rights cases, and has aggressively and successfully challenged efforts to suppress voting or to dilute minority voting strength. The Project\u2019s mission is to build and defend an accessible, inclusive, and equitable democracy free from racial discrimination. The Project has three principles: (1) all Americans should be eligible to vote; (2) voting should be free and easy; and (3) all people should count equally. The Project employs an integrated advocacy approach, combining legislative advocacy, public education, and litigation, and has active cases in over a dozen states. Its recent docket has included: \u2022 more than 60 lawsuits to protect voters during the 2020 and 2024 elections; \u2022 a pair of cases in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the first Trump Administration's discriminatory census policies:\u00a0Department of Commerce v. New York\u00a0(successfully challenging an attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census), and\u00a0New York Immigration Coalition v. Trump\u00a0(challenging the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the population count used to apportion the House of Representatives); \u2022 challenges to discriminatory congressional and state legislative maps, including three recent cases in the U.S. Supreme Court:\u00a0Louisiana v. Callais (2025), defending Louisiana's congressional map, which contains two majority-Black districts in compliance with the Voting Rights Act;\u00a0Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP\u00a0(2024), challenging South Carolina\u2019s congressional map as an unconstitutional and starkly racially gerrymandered map; and\u00a0Allen v. Milligan\u00a0(2023), successfully challenging Alabama\u2019s congressional map as unlawfully diluting the Black voting power under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act; \u2022 challenges to voter purges and documentary proof of citizenship laws; \u2022 and challenges to other new legislation restricting voting rights in states like Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, and Texas. The ACLU Voting Rights Project is currently litigating voter suppression and minority vote dilution cases in over a dozen states, from coast to coast, in every region of the country. The ACLU Voting Rights Project is based at the ACLU National Office in New York, New York. Staff of the Voting Rights Project Sophia Lin Lakin, Director Sarah Brannon, Deputy Director Adriel I. Cepeda Derieux, Deputy Director Davin Rosborough, Deputy Director Ming Cheung, Senior Staff Attorney Theresa J. Lee, Senior Staff Attorney Ari Savitzky, Senior Staff Attorney Dayton Campbell-Harris, Staff Attorney Ethan Herenstein, Staff Attorney Will Hughes, Staff Attorney Megan Keenan, Staff Attorney Jonathan Topaz, Staff Attorney Jacob van Leer, Staff Attorney Patricia Yan, Staff Attorney Nina McKay, Skadden Fellow Clay Pierce, Equal Justice Works Fellow Molly Garyantes, Paralegal Maya Guerra, Paralegal Daniel Kang, Paralegal Destiny Ruiz, Paralegal Back to the Voting Rights Project \u00bb &nbsp;\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/about-voting-rights-project\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\",\"name\":\"American Civil Liberties Union\",\"description\":\"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. 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The Project employs an integrated advocacy approach, combining legislative advocacy, public education, and litigation, and has active cases in over a dozen states. Its recent docket has included:   more than 60 lawsuits to protect voters during the 2020 and 2024 elections;  a pair of cases in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the first Trump Administration's discriminatory census policies:\u00a0Department of Commerce v. New York\u00a0(successfully challenging an attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census), and\u00a0New York Immigration Coalition v. Trump\u00a0(challenging the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the population count used to apportion the House of Representatives);  challenges to discriminatory congressional and state legislative maps, including three recent cases in the U.S. Supreme Court:\u00a0Louisiana v. Callais (2025), defending Louisiana's congressional map, which contains two majority-Black districts in compliance with the Voting Rights Act;\u00a0Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP\u00a0(2024), challenging South Carolina\u2019s congressional map as an unconstitutional and starkly racially gerrymandered map; and\u00a0Allen v. Milligan\u00a0(2023), successfully challenging Alabama\u2019s congressional map as unlawfully diluting the Black voting power under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act;  challenges to voter purges and documentary proof of citizenship laws;  and challenges to other new legislation restricting voting rights in states like Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, and Texas.  The ACLU Voting Rights Project is currently litigating voter suppression and minority vote dilution cases in over a dozen states, from coast to coast, in every region of the country.  The ACLU Voting Rights Project is based at the ACLU National Office in New York, New York.  Staff of the Voting Rights Project  Sophia Lin Lakin, Director Sarah Brannon, Deputy Director Adriel I. Cepeda Derieux, Deputy Director Davin Rosborough, Deputy Director Ming Cheung, Senior Staff Attorney Theresa J. Lee, Senior Staff Attorney Ari Savitzky, Senior Staff Attorney Dayton Campbell-Harris, Staff Attorney Ethan Herenstein, Staff Attorney Will Hughes, Staff Attorney Megan Keenan, Staff Attorney Jonathan Topaz, Staff Attorney Jacob van Leer, Staff Attorney Patricia Yan, Staff Attorney Nina McKay, Skadden Fellow Clay Pierce, Equal Justice Works Fellow Molly Garyantes, Paralegal Maya Guerra, Paralegal Daniel Kang, Paralegal Destiny Ruiz, Paralegal  Back to the Voting Rights Project \u00bb  &nbsp;","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"About the Voting Rights Project | American Civil Liberties Union","og_description":"Established in 1965, VRP has worked to protect the gains in political participation won by voters of color since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). Since its inception, the Voting Rights Project has litigated hundreds of voting rights cases, and has aggressively and successfully challenged efforts to suppress voting or to dilute minority voting strength.  The Project\u2019s mission is to build and defend an accessible, inclusive, and equitable democracy free from racial discrimination. The Project has three principles: (1) all Americans should be eligible to vote; (2) voting should be free and easy; and (3) all people should count equally.  The Project employs an integrated advocacy approach, combining legislative advocacy, public education, and litigation, and has active cases in over a dozen states. Its recent docket has included:   more than 60 lawsuits to protect voters during the 2020 and 2024 elections;  a pair of cases in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the first Trump Administration's discriminatory census policies:\u00a0Department of Commerce v. New York\u00a0(successfully challenging an attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census), and\u00a0New York Immigration Coalition v. Trump\u00a0(challenging the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the population count used to apportion the House of Representatives);  challenges to discriminatory congressional and state legislative maps, including three recent cases in the U.S. Supreme Court:\u00a0Louisiana v. Callais (2025), defending Louisiana's congressional map, which contains two majority-Black districts in compliance with the Voting Rights Act;\u00a0Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP\u00a0(2024), challenging South Carolina\u2019s congressional map as an unconstitutional and starkly racially gerrymandered map; and\u00a0Allen v. Milligan\u00a0(2023), successfully challenging Alabama\u2019s congressional map as unlawfully diluting the Black voting power under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act;  challenges to voter purges and documentary proof of citizenship laws;  and challenges to other new legislation restricting voting rights in states like Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, and Texas.  The ACLU Voting Rights Project is currently litigating voter suppression and minority vote dilution cases in over a dozen states, from coast to coast, in every region of the country.  The ACLU Voting Rights Project is based at the ACLU National Office in New York, New York.  Staff of the Voting Rights Project  Sophia Lin Lakin, Director Sarah Brannon, Deputy Director Adriel I. Cepeda Derieux, Deputy Director Davin Rosborough, Deputy Director Ming Cheung, Senior Staff Attorney Theresa J. Lee, Senior Staff Attorney Ari Savitzky, Senior Staff Attorney Dayton Campbell-Harris, Staff Attorney Ethan Herenstein, Staff Attorney Will Hughes, Staff Attorney Megan Keenan, Staff Attorney Jonathan Topaz, Staff Attorney Jacob van Leer, Staff Attorney Patricia Yan, Staff Attorney Nina McKay, Skadden Fellow Clay Pierce, Equal Justice Works Fellow Molly Garyantes, Paralegal Maya Guerra, Paralegal Daniel Kang, Paralegal Destiny Ruiz, Paralegal  Back to the Voting Rights Project \u00bb  &nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/about-voting-rights-project","og_site_name":"American Civil Liberties Union","article_modified_time":"2025-12-26T02:46:46+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@aclu","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/about-voting-rights-project","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/about-voting-rights-project","name":"About the Voting Rights Project | American Civil Liberties Union","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-07-16T10:28:14+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-26T02:46:46+00:00","description":"Established in 1965, VRP has worked to protect the gains in political participation won by voters of color since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). Since its inception, the Voting Rights Project has litigated hundreds of voting rights cases, and has aggressively and successfully challenged efforts to suppress voting or to dilute minority voting strength. The Project\u2019s mission is to build and defend an accessible, inclusive, and equitable democracy free from racial discrimination. The Project has three principles: (1) all Americans should be eligible to vote; (2) voting should be free and easy; and (3) all people should count equally. The Project employs an integrated advocacy approach, combining legislative advocacy, public education, and litigation, and has active cases in over a dozen states. Its recent docket has included: \u2022 more than 60 lawsuits to protect voters during the 2020 and 2024 elections; \u2022 a pair of cases in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the first Trump Administration's discriminatory census policies:\u00a0Department of Commerce v. New York\u00a0(successfully challenging an attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census), and\u00a0New York Immigration Coalition v. Trump\u00a0(challenging the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the population count used to apportion the House of Representatives); \u2022 challenges to discriminatory congressional and state legislative maps, including three recent cases in the U.S. Supreme Court:\u00a0Louisiana v. Callais (2025), defending Louisiana's congressional map, which contains two majority-Black districts in compliance with the Voting Rights Act;\u00a0Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP\u00a0(2024), challenging South Carolina\u2019s congressional map as an unconstitutional and starkly racially gerrymandered map; and\u00a0Allen v. Milligan\u00a0(2023), successfully challenging Alabama\u2019s congressional map as unlawfully diluting the Black voting power under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act; \u2022 challenges to voter purges and documentary proof of citizenship laws; \u2022 and challenges to other new legislation restricting voting rights in states like Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, and Texas. The ACLU Voting Rights Project is currently litigating voter suppression and minority vote dilution cases in over a dozen states, from coast to coast, in every region of the country. The ACLU Voting Rights Project is based at the ACLU National Office in New York, New York. Staff of the Voting Rights Project Sophia Lin Lakin, Director Sarah Brannon, Deputy Director Adriel I. Cepeda Derieux, Deputy Director Davin Rosborough, Deputy Director Ming Cheung, Senior Staff Attorney Theresa J. 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