Callais Ruling Sets Constitutional Challenge for Denver
DENVER, CO (July 2, 2026) – The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) filed a lawsuit challenging the Denver Public Schools district map. Despite the longstanding legal and moral repugnance against racially engineering district lines, Denver Public Schools persisted.
The Supreme Court recently held that race may never be an aim or purpose of any electoral map. Denver did just that. The lawsuit challenges the maps under the Fifteenth Amendment and seeks to have them invalidated and replaced with race neutral maps that represent Denver’s entire voting public.
The complaint alleges the maps adopted in 2024 had an explicit, unconstitutional racial purpose. Although Denver’s population has grown since the last Census, Denver Public Schools intentionally drew district lines to ensure a Latino representative wins District 2 and a Black representative gets District 4. Board President Xóchitl Gaytán (District 2) promoted the map to address concerns for “our communities, our communities of color, the Black and Brown voices, and how they get diluted.”
The Supreme Court recently struck down Louisiana’s congressional map in Callais v. Louisiana, holding that racially drawn maps violate the Fifteenth Amendment. This Civil War Amendment bans the use of race to allocate power in the United States. This includes using race to, as Board Member Scott Esserman stated, ensure that students are “being represented by people who look like them.”
PILF litigates election issues nationwide and has won landmark redistricting cases such as Pettaway v. Galveston County in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. That case disentangled races from line drawing and set off a chain reaction of redistricting nationwide from Texas to California.
This momentum is now directed at a school district map which, as Board President Carrie Olson claimed, would serve as an “act of resistance and empowerment” until the next Census.
“Race may not be used to allocate political power in the United States. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States, we can return to the first principles of equality in the Declaration of Independence. All are created equal and have inherent dignity. Using race to draw school district lines in Denver offends that principle and is contrary to the American ideal,” said J. Christian Adams, PILF President and General Counsel.
PILF represents two residents inside the Denver Public School system – Susan Moore and Valdamar Archuleta. The lawsuit alleges that the explicit use of race in allocating power harms the plaintiffs and creates a school system that illegally prioritizes race in the allocation of political power.
J. Christian Adams, Jewell Lightfoot, Kaylan Phillips, and Joe Nixon serve as counsel for PILF in the case. William Perry Pendley is local counsel for the plaintiffs.
Read case documents here.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections.
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