Hansi Lo Wang for NPR:

In Nassau County, voters of color and white voters tend to prefer different candidates. And the number of people identifying as white and not Hispanic has dropped more than 11% over the past decade, as Black, Latino and Asian American residents now make up more than a third of eligible voters. But on the current map for the county legislature, those voters of color make up the majority of eligible voters in only four out of 19 districts, or less than a quarter. The map’s challengers argue there should be six such districts….

That change, she hopes, will come through an unprecedented way of directly challenging a local voting map under a state voting rights act — an emerging tool that advocates hope can help fortify the rights of voters of color as opponents continue to chip away at protections against racial discrimination under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Legal experts, however, warn that critics of state voting rights acts are eager to test the constitutionality of these state laws with the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority, and this New York case could spark an appeal that may ultimately lead to the undoing of these protections across the United States.