"A Republican attack on a core provision of the Voting Rights Act that is designed to protect racial minorities comes to the Supreme Court this week, more than a decade after the justices knocked out another pillar of the 60-year-old law. In arguments Wednesday, lawyers for Louisiana and the Trump administration will try to persuade the justices to wipe away the state's second majority Black congressional district and make it much harder, if not impossible, to take account of race in redistricting."
"A mid-decade battle over congressional redistricting already is playing out across the nation, after President Donald Trump began urging Texas and other Republican-controlled states to redraw their lines to make it easier for the GOP to hold its narrow majority in the House of Representatives. A ruling for Louisiana could intensify that effort and spill over to state legislative and local districts."
A Republican challenge seeks to overturn a Voting Rights Act provision that protects racial minorities and would eliminate Louisiana's second majority-Black congressional district. Lawyers for Louisiana and the Trump administration argue that race-based redistricting is unconstitutional and want to prevent consideration of race in drawing districts. Mid-decade redistricting efforts by Republicans could expand if the court rules for Louisiana, affecting congressional, state legislative, and local maps. The conservative Supreme Court recently ended affirmative action in college admissions, and Chief Justice John Roberts has long criticized race-based districting and authored the 2013 opinion that invalidated preclearance requirements.
Read at ABC7 Los Angeles
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