The Supreme Court seemed inclined Wednesday to at least chip away at — and maybe to fully scrap — a key tenet of the Voting Rights Act.
Black voters sued, challenging the map under the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits disenfranchisement on the basis of race.
Courts agreed that the map likely violated the Voting Rights Act.
Some conservative justices have argued that the relevant part of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional because it allows for the use of race in policy decisions.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined their liberal colleagues just a few years ago to save that part of the Voting Rights Act, but seemed more skeptical today.
The Supreme Court appeared to be leaning toward weakening, if not completely dismantling, a fundamental principle of the Voting Rights Act on Wednesday.
The main idea: The conservative majority on the court questioned whether certain initiatives to give Black people and other minority groups more voting power might be unconstitutional.
With the potential to eliminate numerous Democratic-held House seats, its decision might pave the way for a fresh round of gerrymandering in red states.
Quick recap: What began as a limited challenge to a single Louisiana congressional district has grown into a referendum on a key piece of legislation from the civil rights era.
A map created by Louisiana’s legislature following the 2020 Census only featured one district with a majority Black population. Black voters challenged the map in court, citing the Voting Rights Act, which forbids racial discrimination in voting.
Courts concurred that the Voting Rights Act was probably violated by the map. Louisiana therefore created a new one, including a second district with a majority of Black voters.
Subsequently, a group of voters who identified as “non-African American” filed a lawsuit, arguing that the inclusion of the second majority-minority district had diminished their ability to vote.
It appears likely that the non-African-American voters will win.
The Voting Rights Act’s relevant section permits the use of race in policy decisions, which some conservative justices have claimed is unconstitutional.
A few years ago, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined their liberal colleagues in defending that portion of the Voting Rights Act, but they now appeared to be less convinced.
During oral arguments, Kavanaugh stated, “This Court’s cases, in a variety of contexts, have said that race-based remedies are permissible for a period of time — sometimes for a long period of time, decades in some cases — but that they should not be indefinite and should have an end point.”.
As of right now, a decision is anticipated by this summer.
