On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled against a Louisiana election map, narrowing the Voting Rights Act in what NPR described as “the latest
Alyssa Tirrell, Sage Hodil, and Jack Wheatley at MMFA:
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled against a Louisiana election map, narrowing the Voting Rights Act in what NPR described as “the latest in a series of rulings that have all but gutted the landmark 1965 law.” Right-wing media figures and outlets celebrated the ruling and described majority-minority districts as “DEI” and “no-whites-allowed” while denying the negative impacts of the decision on Black Americans, with one commentator claiming that it actually “increases the influence of Black voters.”
The Supreme Court decision is the latest ruling that threatens to “dilute” the political power of minority voters
On April 29, the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling gutting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The court “blocked an electoral map that had given Louisiana a second Black-majority U.S. House of Representatives district.” In his majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito argued that the country had undergone a “vast social change” and that such protections were now unnecessary. [Reuters, 4/30/26; The New York Times, 4/29/26]
Experts and reporters say the ruling will allow Republicans to “draw districts that dilute Black residents’ voting power” in certain states. Reuters reported that the ruling “will make it harder for minorities to challenge electoral maps as racially discriminatory.” According to NPR, the ruling could also result in “a historic drop in representation by Black members of Congress.” [The Atlantic, 4/29/26; Reuters, 4/30/26; NPR, 4/30/26]
A previous 5-4 Supreme Court ruling struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, which established “a formula to identify states that may require extra scrutiny by the Justice Department regarding voting procedures.” The decision also effectively hollowed Section 5 of the law, which depended on Section 4 and required “certain states with a history of discrimination to have changes to any voting procedures approved by the federal government.” As CNN explained of the 2013 and 2026 decisions, as well as the court’s 2023 decision ending affirmative action, “Taken as a whole, the pattern would mean fewer chances for minority voters to elect candidates of their choosing.” [NPR, 6/25/13; CNN, 4/30/26]
Right-wing media praise SCOTUS’s racist Louisiana v. Callais ruling gutting VRA Section 2 by ludicrously calling the ruling an end to “racially gerrymandered congressional districts.”
