By Sam Ozer-Staton

On Wednesday, hundreds of the country’s most influential companies and corporate executives signed on to a new statement opposing “any discriminatory legislation” that would make it harder for people to vote.

The statement, which was signed by companies including Amazon, Google, and BlackRock, represents the latest development in a growing debate over the role that private companies should play in our civic and political life, particularly when it comes to hot-button civil rights issues.

That debate has grown more contentious in the weeks following Georgia’s new restrictive voting law, which, among other things, heightens voter ID requirements, limits the use of ballot drop boxes, criminalizes providing food and water to people in line to vote, and expands the state legislature’s power over election administration.