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Allison Riggs

Interim Executive Director / Chief Counsel, Voting Rights
allisonriggs@scsj.org

Allison Riggs leads the voting rights program at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, an organization she joined in 2009.  In March of 2020, she also took over as Interim Executive Director of the organization.

Her voting rights work over the last decade at SCSJ has been focused on fighting for fair redistricting plans, fighting against voter suppression, and advocating for electoral reforms that would expand access to voting.

She has litigated redistricting cases on behalf of State NAACP Conferences in Texas, Florida, Virginia and North Carolina. In 2018, she argued the Texas redistricting case in the United States Supreme Court, and in 2019, she argued the North Carolina partisan gerrymandering case in the Supreme Court.  Allison works closely with grassroots organizations and communities of color as they seek to advance their political and civil rights.  She received her undergraduate, Master’s Degree and J.D. from the University of Florida.

Jeff Loperfido

Senior Counsel, Voting Rights
jeffloperfido@scsj.org

Jeff Loperfido serves as Senior Counsel with SCSJ’s Voting Rights group. His practice focuses on litigation and policy advocacy that ensures the fair and full participation of all voters.

Jeff graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.S. in Business Administration and a B.A. in Economics, and earned his J.D. cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Following law school, he served as a law clerk to the Hon. Norma L. Shapiro, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and then worked in private practice for five years at the New York City law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP. In 2015, he shifted his practice to government work, serving as senior counsel in the Special Federal Litigation Division of the New York City Law Department. Jeff returned to North Carolina in 2017 committed to dedicating his future professional efforts to social justice causes and is excited to have found that opportunity at SCSJ.

Southern Coalition for Social Justice

Southern Coalition for Social Justice

Partnering with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities in the south to defend and advance their political, social and economic rights through the combination of legal advocacy, research, organizing and communications.

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City of Greensboro, et al., v. Guilford County Board of Elections

Focus Area: Voting RightsFiled in: North Carolina
Last Updated: Mar 4, 2019Case Status: Closed

This is a federal court challenge to the North Carolina legislature’s 2015 redistricting of the Greensboro City Council. We claimed that the prohibition against a local referendum to change the city’s election system was unconstitutional; that the legislation violated the one-person, one-vote principle by under-populating white districts and over-populating minority districts; and that one district was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The Court invalidated the prohibition against a local referendum, held that the redistricting violated the one-person, one-vote principle under the Equal Protection Clause, and enjoined the use of the 2015 redistricting plan. In light of its other rulings, the Court did not reach our racial gerrymandering claim.

Related Files & Resources

April 2017 Memorandum Opinion and Order – Filed 04/03/2017

Related Media

Federal Judge Overturns Legislature's Greensboro Redistricting Scheme (04/03/2017)

Key Contacts

Allison Riggs, Interim Executive Director / Chief Counsel, Voting Rights
allisonriggs@scsj.org

Jeff Loperfido, Senior Counsel, Voting Rights
jeffloperfido@scsj.org

Last Updated: March 4, 2019

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