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Members of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared strikingly open Wednesday to raising the bar for challenges to voting maps under the Voting Rights Act, signaling a potentially sweeping shift that could weaken the landmark civil rights law and sharply limit how race can be considered in redistricting.
The deeply divided justices heard intense and emotional arguments in a high-stakes dispute over Louisiana’s congressional map — a case that has already ricocheted through lower courts and could reshape minority representation nationwide. The legal fight centers on whether the state’s creation of a second majority-Black district violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause by intentionally using race as the defining factor.
After more than two hours of heated exchanges, it appeared Louisiana’s current map — containing four majority-White districts and two majority-Black ones — may not survive. Yet the exact reach of the court’s eventual decision remains uncertain, hinging on the pivotal votes of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Both jurists, who sided with liberals in 2023 to uphold Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, seemed cautiously intrigued by the Trump administration’s bold and controversial proposal to tighten standards for proving racial vote dilution. Kavanaugh called one part of the administration’s standard an “innovation,” but pressed repeatedly for a definitive end-point to race-based remedies under Section 2.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett delicately noted that the Justice Department’s position would “modify” long-standing voting rights standards, while Justice Sonia Sotomayor fiercely countered that such a change would “just get rid of Section 2.” Janai Nelson, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, warned that the administration’s argument would “swallow Section 2 whole.”
At the heart of the case is whether race-conscious redistricting — historically used to remedy discrimination and ensure fair representation — is itself unconstitutional. Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguinaga passionately argued that “race-based redistricting is fundamentally contrary to our Constitution.” The Trump administration echoed that view, urging the justices to eliminate what it described as “electoral race-based affirmative action.”
Opponents of that stance, including lawyers for Black voters, insist such a ruling would unleash chaos across the country, undoing decades of painstaking progress under the Voting Rights Act. “It would be a staggering reversal of precedent,” Nelson warned, adding that removing Section 2’s protections could devastate minority representation and resegregate local governments.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson compared Section 2 to a “tape measure” — a permanent gauge for democracy’s fairness that “doesn’t need a life cycle.” In contrast, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Neil Gorsuch pressed for clarity on whether considering race, even for remedial purposes, amounts to intentional discrimination.
The case’s outcome could reverberate profoundly and permanently, reshaping how states draw political boundaries and how courts assess racial fairness in voting. A decision is expected by June or July 2026, potentially redefining the balance between equality, race, and representation in American democracy.
