Former Republican Members of Congress File Amicus Brief Supporting the Voting Rights Act in the U.S. Supreme Court

  • September 9, 2025
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On behalf of the following former Republican Members of Congress, Protect Democracy and Dunn Isaacson Rhee submitted an amicus brief in Louisiana v. Callais to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold as constitutional Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA):

  • Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE)
  • Representative Charles Boustany (R-LA)
  • Representative Tom Coleman (R-MO)
  • Representative David Emery (R-ME)
  • Representative Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD)
  • Representative Steve Gunderson (R-WI)
  • Representative Bob Inglis (R-SC)
  • Representative John LeBoutillier (R-NY)
  • Representative Connie Morella (R-MD)
  • Representative Tom Petri (R-WI)
  • Representative Claudine Schneider (R-RI) 
  • Representative Christopher Shays (R-CT)
  • Representative Jim Walsh (R-NY)

This issue is personal for these members as each signatory voted to reauthorize the VRA during their time in office.

The brief emphasizes that Section 2 represents a durable, bipartisan legislative achievement that reflects Congress’s constitutional responsibility to protect voting rights under the Fourteenth Amendment, Fifteenth Amendment, and Elections Clause. The former legislators argue that judicial nullification of Section 2 would undermine the separation of powers and disregard decades of congressional fact-finding and bipartisan reauthorizations. As the brief explains:

[T]he right to vote is the crown jewel of American liberties.” These are the words of President Ronald Reagan, spoken as he signed the 1982 amendments of the Voting Rights Act into law. For decades, protecting this fundamental right has not been a partisan cause, but a shared, national commitment. …Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which protects against the denial or abridgement of the right to vote on account of race or color, has been a durable centerpiece of the bipartisan legislation passed to make real our shared, national commitment. It stands as a monument to Congress’s ability to act as the Constitution’s Framers intended: to identify a national problem, to amass an extensive factual record, and to forge a lasting legislative solution.