High Court Rejects Race-Based Map In Major Voting Rights Ruling

By Shawn Fleetwood | The Federalist

The U.S. Supreme Court released a bombshell ruling on Wednesday significantly curtailing states’ use of race in the redistricting process.

“Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 … was designed to enforce the Constitution — not collide with it. Unfortunately, lower courts have sometimes applied this Court’s §2 precedents in a way that forces States to engage in the very race-based discrimination that the Constitution forbids,” Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority (6-3).

Known as Louisiana v. Callais, the case centers around Louisiana’s creation of a second majority-black district in its most recent congressional map. The Pelican State added the second majority-minority district following a lower court order that said its original map — which only included one majority-black district — likely violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).

The new map prompted a new lawsuit from a different set of plaintiffs, who alleged the creation of a second majority-minority district constituted an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. A different lower court agreed with these plaintiffs.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE FEDERALIST