Voting Rights Act’s one-two punch: Give and remove majority-minority districts
Congressional redistricting fights took on a new tone last month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Louisiana’s maps unconstitutional, igniting a regional effect that resulted in highly partisan maps. One civil rights lawyer said the ruling unbound states from a federal provision creating minority districts.
Days after the Louisiana v. Callais ruling, a fury of politicians across the South rushed to jump on the redistricting bandwagon to redraw congressional boundaries. All joined to create districts that strengthened their parties’ chances of winning seats in the November election. In many of the maps, it cracked minority voting blocks — a consequence of the ruling, NAACP Legal Defense Fund Senior Counsel John Cusick told Straight Arrow.
“Many of these states fail to comply with their obligations under section 2 of the Voting Rights Act or the U.S. Constitution,” Cusick said.
He said the opinion makes it unconstitutional for states to draw districts that account for high concentrations of minority voting groups.
He noted that the trend is also concentrated in the South, where Black voter density is higher. It’s evident in several testimonies and hearings where lawmakers have said their current maps could be deemed unconstitutional in light of the Callais ruling.
At least one group, the right-wing Public Interest Legal Foundation, sued Illinois on Monday for its 2021 map that the group says is now unconstitutional. The lawsuit contests Illinois’ own voting rights law, which permits boundaries to preserve clusters of minority voters that have the power to elect someone.
The product of the debates are maps passed to either give Republicans or Democrats partisan advantages, which Cusick said is legal.
“It’s going to further divide and entrench political power, and it’s going to put all the diversity of elected bodies and representation at risk,” he said.
Cusick said the case has lasting effects beyond the 2026 election. Black and minority voters across the nation are going to be targeted and diluted with new maps, he said.
“While so much of the focus oftentimes is on congressional and statewide maps, it was such an important tool for rooting out racial discrimination on the local level as well,” he said.
Where do the states stand?
The only southern states that didn’t join are Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Delaware does not draw boundaries as it’s a single-district state. Per the U.S. Census Bureau, Delaware is in the South.
Legislatures in Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas adopted maps that increased Republicans’ chances of winning seats in the November election. Others in Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina and Virginia are debating over boundary lines. Democrats in Maryland are eyeing redistricting, with intentions of drawing U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, the state’s lone Republican, out of his seat, NOTUS reported Wednesday.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves canceled the state’s special legislative session on Wednesday after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a lower court’s injunction that forced legislators to redraw maps.
“As I said this morning, I expect lawmakers to redraw congressional lines sometime BETWEEN NOW and 2027 elections,” Reeves wrote on X. “I also expect them to redraw legislative and Supreme Court lines sometime between now and 2027 elections.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, ordered a special session to start on June 17 for maps for use in the 2028 election.
“What is happening across the country and the congressional and statewide elections is disappointing and unfortunate, but it also speaks to how powerful people’s voices are because none of this would be happening unless there was a fear of the type of electoral power that Black voters and other voters of color have,” Cusick said.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
