SCOTUS has spoken. This is the decision many Republicans were hoping for.
And the Supreme Court clammed down a ruling that will have Democrats in tears.
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a major victory for fairness in elections on Wednesday by striking down Louisiana’s race-based congressional map. In a 6-3 decision, the conservative majority declared the state’s second black-majority district an unconstitutional racial gerrymander that puts skin color ahead of equal treatment under the law.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, made clear where the line must be drawn.
“Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was designed to enforce the Constitution — not collide with it. Unfortunately, lower courts have sometimes applied this Court’s §2 precedents in a way that forces States to engage in the very race-based discrimination that the Constitution forbids,” he stated.
The controversy began after the 2020 census when Louisiana lawmakers drew new district lines. A federal judge claimed the original map likely violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because it failed to create an additional majority-black district. When the state responded by carving out that extra district, opponents sued, arguing the new lines amounted to an illegal racial gerrymander.
One court demanded more race-based mapmaking to satisfy the Voting Rights Act, while another court struck down the result as outright racial discrimination. The Supreme Court stepped in to settle the mess.
For decades, the Court had tiptoed around the core conflict between the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution’s demand for color-blind government.
Lower courts pushed states into using race as the dominant factor in drawing districts, treating voters as members of racial blocs rather than individual citizens. The majority finally said enough is enough.
Alito explained the long-standing assumption the Court had made:
“For over 30 years, we have assumed for the sake of argument that the answer is yes. And we have gone further and assumed that it is enough if a State ‘ha[s] a strong basis in evidence’ for thinking that the Voting Rights Act requires race-based conduct.”
But the justices concluded that race cannot be the guiding principle in how Americans choose their representatives.
Allowing government to sort voters primarily by skin color clashes with the fundamental American promise of equality. The Constitution does not permit turning election maps into racial quotas.
The ruling affirms that Louisiana’s attempt to comply with one court’s demands still crossed a constitutional line.
“Compliance with §2 thus could not justify the State’s use of race-based redistricting here. The State’s attempt to satisfy the Middle District’s ruling, although understandable, was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, and we therefore affirm the decision below.”
