Supreme Court Strikes Down Louisiana Majority-Black District, Putting Voting Rights and Black Representation at Risk

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Louisiana's 2024 map creating a second majority-Black district was "an unconstitutional racial gerrymander," gutting the Voting Rights Act. Justice Elena Kagan warned, "Today's decision renders Section 2 all but a dead letter."

The Congressional Black Caucus said the court "signed the death certificate of the Voting Rights Act," erasing "decades of Black progress." Rev. Al Sharpton called it "a bullet in the heart of the voting rights movement," adding it "steals from the generation that hasn't voted yet." NAACP President Derrick Johnson called it "a license for corrupt politicians who want to rig the system by silencing entire communities."

For Black Americans, consequences are severe. Rep. Troy Carter warned Black Louisianians lose "a meaningful opportunity to make their voices heard." Hundreds of majority-Black districts nationwide, carved through Section 2 litigation, face elimination. Black state legislators, school board members, and council members across the South could lose seats, dismantling political power built since the Civil Rights Movement.

Martin Luther King III and Arndrea Waters King said the ruling "silences the voices of millions of voters of color," warning that without voting rights, "we are a democracy in name only." House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blasted the "far right extremists" on the court, saying voter suppression has become "a way of life" for Republicans. Marc Morial of the National Urban League called it "a direct blow to the voting power of Black communities."

Alabama voter Shalela Dowdy, a plaintiff who helped create her state's second Black district, said, "It's a setback. Putting it in the hands of the states on this level is dangerous." Political scientist Jonathan Cervas declared the Voting Rights Act "essentially dead" as protection against vote dilution. Republicans could replace more than a dozen Democratic-held House districts by 2028, threatening Black representation nationwide and reversing hard-won gains from Bloody Sunday and the Civil Rights Movement.

Link: NPR