Clyburn Warns Supreme Court Is Reviving Jim Crow-Era 'Separate but Equal' Doctrine
House Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn argues that recent Supreme Court rulings, particularly those gutting the Voting Rights Act, are functionally reinstating the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson standard of 'separate but equal,' reversing decades of civil rights progress.
Representative James Clyburn’s assertion that the current Supreme Court is attempting to reinstate Plessy v. Ferguson is not hyperbole—it is a precise diagnosis of the Roberts Court's systematic dismantling of civil rights infrastructure. The Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision struck down the preclearance formula, and its 2021 Brnovich v. DNC ruling gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by imposing a near-impossible standard for proving racial discrimination in redistricting—a move that legal scholars have directly compared to Plessy’s 'separate but equal' framework (Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review brief, 2024). The mechanism is clear: by requiring plaintiffs to prove intentional discrimination rather than disparate impact, the Court creates a legal reality where states can enact policies that systematically disenfranchise voters of color so long as they avoid explicitly racist language. The harm is immediate: in Louisiana, a new congressional map with two majority-Black districts was replaced with one, diluting Black voting power in a state where African Americans make up one-third of the population. The progressive alternative is a renewed Voting Rights Advancement Act that restores the preclearance formula and codifies a disparate-impact standard, ensuring that the Supreme Court’s retrogressive interpretation does not become the law of the land.
The humanitarian alternative
Congress should immediately pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA), which updates the preclearance formula using current voter discrimination data and explicitly codifies a disparate-impact standard for Section 2 claims. This approach addresses the Court’s critique of outdated data while preserving the original legislative intent of the Voting Rights Act. Additionally, Congress should expand the size of the Supreme Court to 13 justices to rebalance a judiciary that, through politicized appointments, has become hostile to civil rights protections. These measures would restore the legal architecture that made the 1965 Voting Rights Act the most effective civil rights legislation in American history, ensuring that every citizen’s vote carries equal weight regardless of race.
Falsifiable predictions
What this entry claims will happen, and what data would prove it wrong. The Reckoner revisits these against current reality.
- The Supreme Court will uphold the Louisiana congressional map that reduces Black-majority districts from two to one, further eroding Section 2 protections.
- A federal Voting Rights Advancement Act will not pass the 119th Congress due to Senate filibuster and Republican opposition.
- At least three additional states will pass voting restrictions modeled on Louisiana’s map by the 2028 election cycle.
Grounded in
Original source — excerpted
news Clyburn: ‘This Supreme Court Is Attempting to Reinstate Plessy Versus Ferguson’"Saturday on MS NOW’s “PoliticsNation,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) said the Supreme Court was trying to reinstate Plessy v. Ferguson, the overturned ruling ..."