Defending our rights is our duty

On June 19, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, finally heard the clarion call of freedom. But that delay was not an accident; it was an active choice to deny people their humanity, even after the formal and legal end of American slavery.

And now, two and a half centuries after our nation declared independence, we are still fighting to make the promise of freedom real for every family.

Across the country, the right to vote — the right that enables every other right — is constantly under attack. In Congress, legislation threatens to dismantle modern voter registration systems. In the White House, executive orders seek to seize power that belongs to the people and the states. In statehouses across the country, extremist supermajorities pass laws to erase the political power of Black, brown, young, disabled, immigrant and low-income voters. And in the courts, decisions have weakened the protections generations fought to secure.

Enemies of democracy are running the same tired playbook. After Reconstruction, just as Black communities began to wrest equality from unwilling hands, white supremacists responded with poll taxes, literacy tests, violence and intimidation. After the civil rights movement won the Voting Rights Act, opponents of progress searched for new ways to suppress the vote. Today, the tactics may look different, but the goal is the same: to decide whose voice counts and whose does not.

I refuse to accept that.

Time and again, my office has taken action to protect the right to vote as we defend our democracy from those who try to weaken it. New York will not stand by while bad actors try to turn the federal government against the people it is supposed to serve.

Earlier this year, I led a coalition of attorneys general urging the United States Senate to reject the so-called SAVE America Act. Despite its name, this bill would do nothing to save democracy. Instead, it would effectively eliminate online, mail-in and automatic voter registration across the country, creating one more barrier between millions of eligible voters and the ballot box.

My office has also gone to court to stop unlawful attempts by the current federal administration to take control of our elections. In April, we sued to block an executive order that would upend state election systems, threaten access to mail-in voting and pressure states to rely on federal voter rolls under threat of punishment.

No president has the authority to rewrite election law by decree, and no administration has the right to sow chaos, intimidate election officials or make it harder for eligible voters to cast a ballot.

At the state level, my office wields the sword and shield of the law to defend our democracy.

We actively enforce the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York, one of the strongest state voting rights laws in the nation. This law empowers us to confront discriminatory practices, protect against vote dilution and review certain election changes before they can harm voters. When the law was challenged, my office defended it — and New York courts upheld its constitutionality.

Despite the challenges we face, I do not believe despair is an option.

John Lewis taught us that democracy is not a spectator sport. He taught us to get into “good trouble, necessary trouble.” That means calling out injustice plainly. It means using every legal tool available. It means refusing to normalize attacks on our rights.

Juneteenth and July 4 tell two parts of the same American story. One marks a promise declared, while the other marks a promise deferred. Our task is to deliver on the American promise of freedom and to heal the generational wounds of slavery and racism through equity and mutual understanding.

For 250 years, the true defenders of American democracy have carried this fight forward. We honor their legacy by fighting on.

Letitia James is New York’s state attorney general. This commentary was originally published in the New York Amsterdam News

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