Supreme Court Voting-Rights Ruling Could Blow Up Midterms

"If mapmakers in those states are no longer required under Section 2 [of the VRA] to draw districts where racial minority voters have a realistic opportunity of electing their preferred candidate, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina and Texas could end up with fewer Democratic representatives in Congress. Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee could lose all of theirs, the report finds."

"Today's oral arguments in the Louisiana case suggested the Court's conservatives could be on the brink of gutting the VRA decisively, probably on the grounds that race-based remedies for past voter discrimination have a sell-by date and thus violate the equal-protection provisions of the 14th and 15th Amendments. Alternatively, the Court could craft a decision that makes it extremely difficult for voting-rights advocates to win VRA cases, rather than one that explicitly overturns the law."

"Near the end of its previous term, the Supreme Court made a surprising request for a reargument of , a case about the application of the Voting Rights Act to congressional redistricting. The Court was clearly inviting a challenge to the constitutionality of a key VRA provision that has prevented the dilution of Black voting influence. The most recent time the Court applied the VRA in a similar case in Alabama, a 5-4 majority that included Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh"

The Supreme Court requested a reargument in a Voting Rights Act case about congressional redistricting near the end of its previous term. A prior 5-4 decision in an Alabama case held that states must provide opportunities for minority voters to elect representatives. Recent Louisiana oral arguments indicate conservative justices may overturn or severely restrict VRA race-based remedies, citing equal-protection concerns and a purported time limit on such remedies. A narrowing or gutting of Section 2 would make VRA claims much harder to win. A report warns that weakened VRA enforcement could cost Black and Latino communities seats in Congress, especially in Republican-controlled southern states.

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