Supreme Court seems poised to further undercut the Voting Rights Act

"Once considered the jewel in the crown of the civil rights movement, the Voting Rights Act has been largely dismembered since 2013 by the increasingly conservative Supreme Court. The major exception was a decision just two years ago that upheld the section of the law aimed at ensuring that minority voters are not shut out of the process of drawing new congressional district lines."

"Supporting them in the Supreme Court Wednesday, Deputy Solicitor General Hashim Mooppan contended that the Black voters should not have gotten a second majority-minority district. "If they were all white, we all agree they wouldn't get a second district," he said. The court's liberal justices pointed out that the federal law is based on the effects of redistricting in a state like Louisiana where, as they noted, voters are so racially polarized that even white Democrats for the most part don't vote for Black candidates."

Supreme Court activity appears poised to further weaken the 1965 Voting Rights Act by narrowing protections for minority voters in redistricting disputes. The law has been substantially eroded since 2013, with a recent exception two years ago preserving a section aimed at preventing minority exclusion in drawing congressional districts. Chief Justice John Roberts suggested that that exception may not be controlling in the current case. The dispute centers on a Louisiana map where a 30% Black population led the legislature, after litigation, to create a second majority-Black district. Non-African-American voters challenged the map, and government counsel argued the second district was not warranted. Liberal justices emphasized racial polarization; conservative justices questioned conflating partisan and racial motives.

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