SCOTUS Signals New Limits on Voting Rights Act

The Supreme Court signaled Wednesday that it may further weaken the Voting Rights Act, as justices heard arguments in a Louisiana redistricting case that could reshape how race can be considered in drawing voting districts.

• The case centers on whether states can use race at all when redrawing congressional maps to comply with Section 2 of the 1965 law, a key provision meant to protect minority voters from discrimination, NBC News reports. All six of the court's conservative justices seemed open to limiting Section 2's reach—potentially making it harder for civil rights groups to challenge maps they say dilute minority voting power.

• The dispute began when Louisiana, which has six seats in the House and a population that is one-third Black, was required—following a lawsuit—to create a second majority-Black congressional district. The state now opposes the redrawn map, joining a group of "non-African-American" voters who argue that any consideration of race in redistricting violates the Constitution's 14th and 15th amendments. The Trump administration backs this new position, arguing for a "colorblind" approach that the court embraced in last year's decision ending race-based college admissions.
• The court could adopt a narrower proposal backed by the Trump administration that would keep Section 2 but alter the standard set in the 1986 Thornburg v. Gingles case, which would give states more flexibility to draw maps for partisan reasons instead of racial ones.
• Justice Brett Kavanaugh appeared receptive to this approach, saying recent rulings held that "race-based remedies are permissible, but they should not be indefinite," the Washington Post reports. Liberal justices and civil rights advocates, however, argue that such a ruling would effectively gut Section 2, undermining protections for minority voters.

• The issue is further complicated by the court's own 2022 decision, which required Alabama to consider race in redistricting—a ruling that saw Chief Justice John Roberts and Kavanaugh side with the court's liberals. But during oral arguments Wednesday, Roberts minimized the significance of that decision. "That case, of course, took the existing precedent as a given," he said of the ruling he authored, per NBC.
• A ruling favoring Louisiana could reduce the number of districts drawn to give minority voters a fair shot at electing their preferred candidates, likely leading to fewer minority lawmakers in Congress and state legislatures.
  The AP reports that the ruling, expected by June, could lead to voting maps across the South being redrawn to eliminate majority Black or Latino districts that tend to favor Democrats. NBC reports that conservatives have long targeted the Voting Rights Act; the top court weakened it in previous decisions in 2013 and 2021.