Blow to Voting Rights Act as Supreme Court rules congressional map based on race is unconstitutional
Louisiana will once again have to redraw its congressional maps after the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the creation of a second Black-majority district was an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander,” a ruling that could potentially help Republicans in upcoming elections.
In a 6-3 decision, the conservative majority of the court said the state relied too heavily on race to redraw its congressional map in 2024, despite the lines initially being redrawn to comply with a previous ruling that said the 2020 congressional map was also unconstitutional – for different reasons.
However, justices declined to intervene in Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark statute that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.
But the decision may have implications in the midterm elections, as it could prompt other Republican-led states to draw new maps that follow a looser interpretation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
The three-justice liberal wing of the court sharply dissented from the majority, warning that Wednesday’s decision could open the door to eliminating protections of the Voting Rights Act anyway.
“If other States follow Louisiana’s lead, the minority citizens residing there will no longer have an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. And minority representation in government institutions will sharply decline,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote.
I dissent because Congress elected otherwise. I dissent because the Court betrays its duty to faithfully implement the great statute Congress wrote. I dissent because the Court’s decision will set back the foundational right Congress granted of racial equality in electoral opportunity. I dissent,” Kagan wrote.
More than a decade after ruling against a critical component of the Voting Rights Act, the justices were once again asked to take aim at the decades-old civil rights law, which sought to release the grip of Jim Crow-era threats to the right to vote.
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act bans voting rules that discriminate based on race. But if states don’t need to consider the racial impacts of how congressional districts are drawn, the consequences could be sweeping, opening the door for Republican lawmakers to eliminate Democratic-led districts across the South — and delivering a massive shot in the arm to the GOP’s gerrymandering arms race before midterm elections.
Republican officials and lawyers for the Trump administration argued that racial discrimination that led to the passage of the landmark law in 1965 should no longer apply in modern times.
Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority’s opinion, said that the state did not have a “compelling interest” to justify using race to create a new congressional map. He added that Section 2 only applies when “a strong interference” indicates there was “intentional discrimination” in redrawing congressional maps.
“Thus [Section 2] does not intrude on States’ prerogative to draw districts based on nonracial factors, including to achieve partisan advantage,” Alito wrote.
Justice Clarence Thomas, who has voiced opposition to the court intervening in racial gerrymandering cases, wrote in a concurring opinion Wednesday that he would have gone further and ruled that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has nothing to do with drawing congressional lines.
Black voters make up one-third of Louisiana’s population, but were largely “packed” into one majority-Black district and “cracked” across the other five after the state crafted a new map after the 2020 census. Most Black voters in the state have voted for Democratic candidates.
