Rightwing justices in Louisiana v Callais led 6-3 vote to redraw congressional maps in blow to Voting Rights Act
The US supreme court issued a landmark ruling on Wednesday, Louisiana v Callais, relating to how states draft congressional maps under the key civil rights statute, the Voting Rights Act.
By a margin of 6-3, the rightwing justices who control America’s top court ordered Louisiana to redraw congressional maps that gave African Americans the chance to elect their candidates of choice proportionate to their population size. The majority dismissed this as an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander”.
The decision to prohibit what is known as “race-based redistricting” discards one of the main tools that have been used for decades to protect minority voters from racial discrimination. It is a severe, and some say terminal, blow to the Voting Rights Act which has been a mainstay in the fight to overcome the harms of US slavery and southern segregation since it was framed in 1965.
Some southern states are already moving on the back of the ruling to redraw maps to gut the power of Black and other minority voters. Donald Trump was asked on Wednesday whether states should now do that, and replied: “I would.”
