Friday, July 17, 2015 | news
Fayette Residents Continue Fight Against At-Large Voting “The decision by Fayette County is really is a step backwards and is an affront to progress that has been made in Fayette County,” said Leah Aden, assistant counsel with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and an attorney for the residents. Read the full article here.
Monday, February 10, 2014 | news
Leah Aden writes a blog post for the American Constitution Society in which she describes, in detail, LDF’s challenge to Terrebonne Parish’s discriminatory at-large system of voting. Aden explains that without this litigation, plaintiffs and other Black voters in Terrebonne wouldn’t have recourse to change their treatment as second-class citizens. Expanding Democracy in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana by […]
Friday, October 28, 2016 | news
Voting Suppression is the Real Election Scandal “This is an unfortunate part of our history,” Leah Aden, a senior counsel with the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, told The Intercept. “People are acutely aware of the changing demographics in this country and while we should all be working towards more people participating, there’s always been this […]
Thursday, January 26, 2017 | news
“This voter fraud lie has been used to disenfranchise black voters for the last 150 years,” Leah Aden, a senior counsel with the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, told The Intercept, citing a renewed crackdown on voting rights following historic black voter turnout in 2008 and 2012, as well as the 2010 census revealing the country’s […]
Friday, September 16, 2016 | news
Polling Places Become Battleground In U.S. Voting Rights Fight While polling place cutbacks are on the rise across the country, including in some Democratic-run areas, the South’s history of racial discrimination has made the region a focus of concern for voting rights advocates. Activists see the voting place reductions as another front in the fight […]
Friday, October 28, 2016 | news
Winning in court, losing on the ground: uncertainty clouds U.S. voting rights With early voting already under way ahead of the Nov. 8 election, local officials in several states are trying to enforce restrictions that have been suspended or struck down in court, civil rights advocates say. In some cases, the action appears to be […]
Tuesday, January 24, 2017 | news
Leah Aden, senior counsel with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said by email that her organization was pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision, calling the Fifth Circuit’s decision “a victory for Texas voters, particularly the 600,000 registered and one million eligible voters who lack one of the limited forms of photo ID that […]
Tuesday, September 20, 2016 | news
These people had their voting rights restored and then yanked away again Leah Aden, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, says that after 2008, people of color participated in the electoral process in record numbers; black and brown voters in most age groups vote Democrat. This may influence why some legislators don’t have […]
Tuesday, January 17, 2017 | news
Voting rights are under siege in a way that hasn’t been seen in more than a generation. But these coordinated attacks follow a historic pattern: Laws that expanded the franchise during Reconstruction and after the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act have typically been followed by state-level repression and federal indifference. “With advancements in […]
Monday, October 31, 2016 | news
Appeals Courts are Dismantling Stricter Voter ID Laws In August, a federal district judge in Corpus Christi, Texas, approved a settlement agreed to by state officials that voters without the state-approved ID should be able to sign a declaration that they faced “reasonable impediments” in obtaining one. Those voters must be allowed to cast a […]
