It is examining a Louisiana case that could alter congressional elections for decades.
By Catholics for Catholics
In a move that could dramatically alter biennial house elections for decades, the six conservative judges of the Supreme Court suggested Wednesday that they would put a constraint to the use of race to regulate the confines of congressional districts.
Hearing a challenge from the Trump administration and state officials, the court examined a dispute over Louisiana’s congressional map. The objection contends that the court-ordered creation of a second majority-black district transgressed the 14th Amendment by giving precedence to racial composition in its delimitations, according to the New York Post.
“This Court’s cases, in a variety of contexts, have said that race-based remedies are permissible for a period of time — sometimes for a long period of time, decades, in some cases — but that they should not be indefinite and should [have an] endpoint,” conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh contended.
The Supreme Court’s decision could have a major impact on the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.
After the 2020 Census, Louisiana’s original map included only one majority-black district, but lower courts directed officials back to the drawing board, saying the cartographers violated Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act by unlawfully diluting minority votes.
About one-third of Louisiana residents are African-American and the state’s only two Democratic lawmakers in Congress were elected from the majority-black districts.
In June 2023, the Supreme Court struck down Alabama’s congressional map, with Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts siding with the court’s three liberals to find that the map violated the Voting Rights Act.
“If the objective is simply to maximize the number of representatives of a particular party,” conservative Justice Samuel Alito asked at one point, “that’s seeking a partisan advantage, it is not seeking a racial advantage, isn’t that right?”
But contending on behalf of a group of black voters in support of a second majority black district, Janai Nelson refuted that if “race is used as a means to seek the partisan advantage, then that is unconstitutional.”
People gathered in front of the Supreme Court with signs saying “Unite & Rise,” “Protect Our Vote,” and “Defend Fair Democracy.”
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