In a historic ruling on Wednesday, the Supreme Court said the Voting Rights Act — the landmark legislation intended to protect Black Americans from disenfranchisement — does not permit states to draw congressional districts primarily based on race.
The decision is expected to significantly limit how states and local jurisdictions draw voting districts. Some legal experts say it could also chill other racially conscious remedies more broadly.
Ruling 6-3 in Louisiana v. Callais, the court sided with white plaintiffs who challenged Louisiana’s congressional map, which included a second majority-Black district along the Mississippi River north of Baton Rouge.
The majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, court ruled that the 2024 map amounted to “an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”
Justice Elena Kagan, who dissented from the ruling, described the decision as “this latest chapter in the majority’s now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act.”
When Louisiana lawmakers created a second majority-Black congressional district in 2024, a group of white voters sued, saying the state cannot legally draw a district based on its racial makeup.
A three-judge panel in U.S. District Court sided with the white voters, throwing out the state’s new congressional map on the grounds that it was racially gerrymandered, or carved up to suit certain parties. The state and a group of Black voters appealed to the Supreme Court.
The justices were asked to address a long-held precedent about how lawmakers balance voting protections.