As the 2022 midterm elections approach, a wave of new voting barriers and legal challenges is fundamentally reshaping how elections are conducted in the United States. With less than four months until voters head to the polls, journalist Ari Berman, a voting-rights expert for *Mother Jones*, warns that recent Supreme Court rulings and proposed legislation are dismantling decades of progress in voting rights. The Court’s spring session delivered significant blows to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which Berman describes as the most important civil rights law of the 1960s, now stripped of its enforcement power.
Adding to these concerns, President Trump is pushing Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would mandate strict voter registration requirements, including showing a passport or birth certificate. Berman highlights the impracticality of this proposal, noting that roughly half of Americans do not possess a passport. „Ask the average person, ‘Do you know where your birth certificate is?’ And a lot of people are gonna struggle to find it,” he says. The president also continues to challenge mail-in voting, despite evidence showing it is safe and secure, with states like Oregon, Washington, and Utah successfully using it for years. Berman warns that these actions, including potential gerrymandering and the redrawing of district maps, are part of a broader strategy to sow distrust in the electoral system and create the groundwork for challenging election results if Republicans lose.
The Supreme Court’s recent decisions, including the late April ruling in *Louisiana v. Calais*, have been described as a „death blow” to the Voting Rights Act, striking down the creation of majority-minority districts that allow Black voters and other voters of color to elect their preferred candidates. Berman fears this heralds a return to a „politics of Jim Crow” and white supremacy in the South, with states like Tennessee, Louisiana, and Alabama already scrambling to redraw maps and reduce Black representation before the midterms. Meanwhile, the Court’s campaign finance decision, which struck down limits on political party spending, further empowers wealthy individuals to influence elections, a long-term project of the Roberts Court to deregulate campaign finance.
Berman argues that the growing momentum for Supreme Court reform is a response to a Court that feels unchecked by democratic norms. While Congress could theoretically pass new voting rights protections or bans on partisan gerrymandering, experts agree that the Court would likely strike them down. As a result, there is increasing support for reforms such as term limits or expanding the Court to rein in a judiciary that has turned its back on bipartisan consensus. With each ruling and new proposal, Berman emphasizes that the core of American democracy and multiracial representation is under unprecedented threat, leaving voting rights advocates uncertain about what interventions the administration might attempt next in the electoral process.
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Forrás: https://www.npr.org/2026/07/08/nx-s1-5884918/scotus-trump-election-barriers-ari-berman.