"There would be considerable historical irony if the court decides to use the 14th Amendment to provide the legal cover for reversing a generation of Black political progress in the South. Initially designed to enshrine federal civil rights protections for freed people facing a battery of discriminatory " Black Codes" in the postbellum South, the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause has been the foundation of the nation's modern rights-based legal order, ensuring that all U.S. citizens are treated fairly."
"Back in 2013, the Supreme Court tossed out a key provision of the Voting Rights Act regarding federal oversight of elections. It appears poised to abolish another pillar of the law. The dismantling of Section 2 would open the floodgates for widespread vote dilution by allowing primarily Southern state legislatures to redraw political districts, weakening the voting power of racial minorities."
A Supreme Court decision that eliminates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act would allow state legislatures, especially in the South, to redraw districts that dilute minority voting strength. A Louisiana challenge contends that a federal mandate to create a second majority-Black district violates the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause and amounts to racial gerrymandering. The 14th Amendment originally established federal protections for freed people and underpins the modern rights-based legal order. Reconstruction-era amendments created the first cohort of Black elected officials. The historical origins of racial gerrymandering explain how generational political gains can be reversed.
Read at Brooklyn Eagle
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