Supreme Court Ruling Erodes the Voting Rights Act

Wtitten by Rebecca Oxtot

Edited by Tanner Drant and Francesca Howards

Image Credit: Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

On April 29th, the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s 2024 election map, which provided black voters with a second majority district. The ruling comes amidst an intensifying redistricting battle and destroys the legal protection of minority voters against racial gerrymandering. 

Louisiana's population is 33% black, but, until 2024, only one of its six congressional districts was majority-black. Lower courts ruled that this was a violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because it diluted the ability of black voters to elect a candidate. In 2024, the electoral map was redrawn to create a second majority-minority district, aligning district boundaries with the population’s demographics. 

But last week, the Supreme Court struck down the redrawn map, declaring it a violation of the 15th Amendment and calling the redrawing of the maps “racial gerrymandering” because the creators considered race as a primary factor in their creation. Louisiana is now required to create yet another new congressional map before the 2026 midterms. This ruling completely undermines the intent of both the 15th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, turning landmark civil rights legislation completely on its head. Under this paradoxical decision, the process of correcting racial gerrymandering cannot consider race. If it seems completely impractical, that’s because it is. This colorblind policy does nothing to prevent voter suppression, and its only purpose is to protect the racial gerrymandering it claims to prohibit. 

Not only does it create unnecessary barriers to correcting discriminatory gerrymandering, but it also sets an impossible bar for proving the existence of this discrimination in the first place. The Court ruled that in order to prove a violation of Section 2 of the VRA, you must supply proof of discriminatory intent. This undoes the 1982 VRA Amendment, which required only proof of discriminatory impact, precisely because intent is so difficult to prove (and so easy to cover up). Thanks to this ruling, decades of civil rights progress have been completely undone, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. 

In anticipation of the 2026 midterm elections, gerrymandering efforts are currently taking place across the country. After Texas redistricted to benefit the GOP, California countered with a redistricting plan designed to flip Republican seats. With partisan gerrymandering finding national success, the Voting Rights Act stood as the last remaining protection against the deliberate suppression of minority voters, especially in Southern states. Now, that final protection has been destroyed - and Louisiana isn’t the only state affected. Tennessee Republicans are already planning to break apart the only majority-black and democrat district, allowing the minority vote to be consumed by the surrounding Republican-majority. State legislatures control the redistricting process in most states, with the governor holding veto power. In Southern states like Tennessee, these offices are dominated by Republicans. Without the VRA, there's nothing left to keep them in check. 

This ruling’s benefit to the GOP is far from a coincidence - the Justices’ votes fall directly along partisan lines. The majority decision consists of six Justices appointed by Republicans; three by Donald Trump, two by George W. Bush, and one by Bill Clinton. The dissenting vote was entirely Democrat-appointed, with two Justices appointed by Barack Obama and one by Joe Biden. 

The Supreme Court’s decision allows Southern Republicans to suppress the votes of minorities, and by ignoring the clear benefit to the GOP, denies the reality of racial gerrymandering. This ruling is an attack on democratic process, designed to undermine the decades-long fight for equal voting rights. Its impact on the midterm elections is yet to be seen, but its implications for our democracy are harrowing.

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Sources:

https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-voting-rights-act-louisiana-alabama-4e3225083caccda5ec73a98533a79add    

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-109_21o3.pdf

https://www.ncsl.org/state-legislatures-news/details/supreme-court-narrows-voting-rights-act-upending-redistricting-law  

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/30/supreme-court-voting-rights-act-roberts-alito 

https://www.justice.gov/crt/section-2-voting-rights-act

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/30/supreme-court-voting-rights-act-roberts-alito

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/redistricting-war-accelerates-winner-take-all-politics-straining-american-democracy