The Supreme Court has asked litigants in a major voting rights case to file briefs over whether it’s constitutional to allow states to carve out legislative districts to boost racial minorities’ electoral power.
The justices asked for the briefing as part of a case that was held over from the last term involving Louisiana’s congressional map, which was drawn specifically to create two majority-Black districts.
Depending on how the case plays out, it could directly challenge a key part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which sought to recover from centuries of political oppression and, in practice, has pushed states to maximize minorities’ voting power.
Opponents say that puts too much focus on race or ethnicity, elevating some people’s electoral interests over others.
The high court heard the case last year but ended up not issuing a decision and saying it would re-hear the case when the new term begins in October.
In a brief order, the justices told the sides to address a very specific question: “Whether the state’s intentional creation of a second majority-minority congressional district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution.”
The map, adopted by the state ahead of the 2024 election, carves out two of Louisiana’s six congressional districts as majority Black. The result is that the state went from a 5-1 Republican delegation to 4-2.
When the justices put the case on hold in June, Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, saying the court should have ruled immediately and found Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to be unconstitutional.
“I am hopeful that this court will soon realize that the conflict its Section 2 jurisprudence has sown with the Constitution is too severe to ignore,” he said at the time.
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits discrimination in voting practices on the basis of race, color or language.
Critics say a ruling for the challengers in the Louisiana dispute could gut part of the Voting Rights Act, making it harder for minorities to launch challenges to congressional district maps.
The Louisiana cases are Louisiana v. Callais, Phillip and Robinson, Press v. Callais Phillip.