Brian Tyler Cohen

08/03/2025

The biggest story in the country right now is flying completely under the radar. Last cycle, Louisiana Republicans were ordered to draw a second majority-Black district to be in compliance with the Voting Rights Act. But Republicans sued, saying that the creation of a second majority-Black district (so that Black voters in Louisiana would have fair representation) was actually discriminatory against white voters. Which is farcical, given that the whole point of the Voting Rights Act is to prevent white voters from stripping Black voters of their due representation. In other words, it is absurd on its face to suggest that the creation or preservation of Black opportunity districts are somehow discriminatory against white people.

But… the US Supreme Court didn’t think it was absurd. The justices curiously refused to hand down a ruling at the end of their term. And on Friday, SCOTUS ordered new legal briefings from the parties on whether or not the very concept of Black majority districts violate the 14th and 15th Amendments to the US Constitution. This matters because if SCOTUS finds that these Black-majority districts do violate the Constitution and that the VRA is actually unconstitutional, then there is no federal prohibition to stop states under Republican control from re-drawing their maps without the required opportunity districts. And there are dozens of those districts in states across the country intended to protect the voting power of oft-disenfranchised minority voters. Which means, where Republicans are in control, all of those theoretically could be drawn out of existence.