Process
Status Items Highlights Done See section below Claims None Questions None Output None
Highlights
id1010959027
In Louisiana v. Callais, the court ruled, 6–3, that the Voting Rights Act cannot be used to protect against the limiting of minority political power through gerrymandering. The ruling effectively ends the VRA, and with it the all too brief era of multiracial democracy in America.
id1010959055
Louisiana should have two majority-minority congressional districts, but its 2020 redistricting allowed for only one. The state was sued under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and forced to draw a map with two Black districts. It did. Then white people sued, arguing that they were somehow constitutionally entitled to congressional overrepresentation, and that the two majority-minority districts discriminated against their white-bred interests.
id1010959245
The majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, makes two key points:
- States cannot use race as a factor in districting even when those states are trying to prevent the disenfranchisement of nonwhite minorities.
- The Voting Rights Act only protects against intentional discrimination. What this means in reality is that white people can gerrymander away Black political power, just like they did in the old days, as long as they say they’re only trying to take away Democratic political power.