April 29, 2026      9:38 AM

In Louisiana case, US Supreme Court deals major blow to Voting Rights Act just as Florida takes up redistricting

A huge victory for the GOP while Democrats and voting rights advocates call the decision "intellectually dishonest and wrong"

Via the NPR News Desk in DC:

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision along partisan lines, ruled that Louisiana's 2024 election map, which created a second majority-Black congressional district, was "an unconstitutional racial gerrymander."

Although the court kept Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act intact, Wednesday's decision all but guts the landmark law that came out of the Civil Rights Movement and protected the collective voting power of racial minorities when political maps are redrawn.

It isn't yet clear how the decision will affect November's midterms. Primaries are well underway in most states.

Once considered the jewel in the crown of the civil rights movement, the Voting Rights Act has been largely dismembered since 2013 by the increasingly conservative Supreme Court. The major exception was a decision just two years ago that upheld the section of the law aimed at ensuring that minority voters are not shut out of the process of drawing new congressional district lines.

Copyright April 29, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved