US Supreme Court scraps Louisiana’s Black-majority district in major blow to voting rights

The ruling orders Louisiana to redraw its congressional boundaries once again, likely eliminating one of the state’s two Black-majority districts. While the immediate impact on the 2026 midterms may be limited due to filing deadlines, election experts say the consequences could be profound by 2028, mainly in Southern states where minority representation has expanded under Section 2 of the voting rights act.

Following the 2020 census, Louisiana’s Republican-led legislature approved a new congressional map that created only one majority-Black district, even though Black residents make up roughly one-third of the state’s population. In 2022, a coalition of Black voters challenged the map under the Voting Rights Act, arguing that it weakened their electoral power by concentrating Black voters in a single district while dispersing others across multiple districts, The Guardian reported.

But the Supreme Court’s conservative majority narrowed how Section 2 can be used, needing plaintiffs to prove something much closer to intentional discrimination.

According to The Guardian, Justice Elena Kagan accused the court of dismantling a foundation of civil rights law. “Today’s decision renders section 2 all but a dead letter,” she wrote, warning that the states could now systematically weaken minority voting power with legal consequence.

Former US President Barack Obama said that the ruling gave “state legislatures to gerrymander legislative districts to systematically dilute and weaken the voting power of racial minorities – so long as they do it under the guise of ‘partisanship’ rather than explicit ‘racial bias’”.

Republicans, including Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill, praised the decision saying: “The supreme court has ended Louisiana’s long-running nightmare of federal courts coercing the state to draw a racially discriminatory map. That was always unconstitutional – and this is a seismic decision reaffirming equal protection under our nation’s laws.” US President Donald Trump called it “the kind of ruling I like” and suggested that states should consider redrawing congressional maps in response, a report by news agency AP stated.

The White House hailed the judgment as “A complete and total victory for American voters”. “The color of one’s skin should not dictate which congressional district you belong in. We commend the court for putting an end to the unconstitutional abuse of the Voting Rights Act and protecting civil rights,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson wrote in an email, according to AP.

The Supreme Courts’ ruling was issued as Florida lawmakers considered a Republican-backed proposal to redraw the state’s congressional map. Submitted by Governor Ron DeSantis, the plan could help the GOP gain up to four additional seats in the US House.

Election law expert Nicholas Stephanopoulos has estimated that nearly 70 of the House’s 435 congressional districts are currently shaped by protections under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.