Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court took the extraordinary step of immediately certifying its decision in Louisiana v. Callais, bypassing its own standard 32 day delay. In doing so, it gave Louisiana Republicans the green light to immediately redraw their congressional maps, hurting minority voters and upturning the regularity of our electoral system after votes have already been cast. The result: two majority-Black districts, drawn to give their residents a fair shot at representation, are now at imminent risk of elimination after last week’s decision all but erased Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
The underlying Callais decision is itself a devastating blow to civil rights. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is the provision that for decades allowed communities of color to challenge discriminatory maps. In this final blow to its effectiveness, the Court's conservative majority has handed politicians a ready-made defense to any VRA Section 2 claim: states can now justify drawing maps that dilute Black and Brown voting power simply by claiming partisan — rather than racial — motivation, even in parts of the country like the Jim Crow South where the two are nearly indistinguishable. As Justice Kagan warned in dissent, Section 2 is now "all but a dead letter."
Last night’s move to rush that ruling into immediate effect compounds the damage: it is a direct assault on equal protection and the democratic promise that every American's vote counts. The Court didn't just weaken the Voting Rights Act — it ensured those consequences land now, mid-election, in a state where Black residents make up one-third of the population and suffer tremendous under-representation in government. L4GG stands with the communities targeted by this ruling, and we hope you will join us in fighting to defend the right of every voter to be heard.