US Supreme Court guts pillar of Voting Rights Act

On Wednesday morning, the US Supreme Court tossed out a congressional map in Louisiana that had been drawn to shore up the voting power of the state’s Black residents, a decision that weakens the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) and could have huge ramifications for the upcoming midterm elections.

Under Section 2 of the VRA, which broadly outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, lawmakers have for decades drawn congressional maps with a certain number of majority-minority districts in states with large minority populations, ensuring that certain groups of voters can have representation in the US Congress. The court’s decision today narrows the scope of how courts can interpret the provision widely seen as the cornerstone of the 61-year-old law.

The court had already weakened many aspects of the Voting Rights Act, but, until now, Section 2 had remained.

The decision could also create future opportunities for Republicans to pick up congressional seats in the American South, where politics largely fall along racial lines. A few states are trying to redraw congressional maps before the midterms, but may face legal hurdles in doing so. Hours after the court’s decision, Florida’s state House approved a new map that could give Republicans four additional seats in Congress (the Legislature had already planned on the vote prior to the SCOTUS decision this morning). With this decision, though, more states could also take up redistricting votes.

It’s worth taking a step back. How did the Voting Rights Act – regarded as the crown jewel of the civil rights era – come to be? In this episode of “ian explains” from 2022, Ian Bremmer takes us through the history.

Watch the video here.