Supreme Court rules on key Voting Rights Act rule as Republicans and Democrats wage redistricting war
The Supreme Court on Wednesday limited the scope of a key Voting Rights Act provision that restricts how states draw districts affecting minority voters, constraining states' use of race as...
By Fox News · Fox News
The Supreme Court on Wednesday limited the scope of a key Voting Rights Act provision that restricts how states draw districts affecting minority voters, constraining states' use of race as a factor when drawing congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterms. The 6-3 ruling narrows how states can consider race when drawing maps, a shift that could affect minority representation in multiple states and trigger a new wave of legal challenges over congressional boundaries. The decision maintains the current legal standard for redistricting disputes nationwide, likely sustaining existing maps in several states and shaping how future challenges unfold in federal courts. The case, Louisiana v. Callais, was first argued last March before the Supreme Court, and centered on whether Louisiana’s 2024 congressional map, which had added a second majority-Black district, amounted to an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The dispute reached the high court after months of legal back-and-forth, including oral arguments last March, and a rare second round of arguments last October, focused on whether Louisiana's map (and creation of the second majority-Black district under the VRA) violated the 14th or 15th Amendments of the Constitution. Conservative justices appeared skeptical during October's arguments about keeping Section 2 of the VRA in place, as-is, and pressed the lawyer for the NAACP on whether she believed there should be a time duration limit on the intentional use of race in drawing voting districts under the law. JUDGES SAY THEY'LL REDRAW LOUISIANA CONGRESSIONAL MAP THEMSELVES IF LAWMAKERS CAN'T During those arguments, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and other conservatives on the high court appeared open to the idea that Congress, in passing the 1965 Voting Rights Act law, may have intended a sort of "sunset period" for Section 2, allowing it to weaken over time. That possibility was invoked by Kavanaugh several times during oral arguments, as he pressed lawyers for the state…