Supreme Court Considers Gutting Voting Rights, Citing 'Race-Based' Maps Again
The Supreme Court is set to hear Louisiana's argument to discard a second majority-Black congressional district, with Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill claiming 'race-based redistricting is fundamentally contrary to our Constitution.' This is rich, considering the vast historical record of "race-neutral" maps systematically diluting Black votes since, well, forever. The Court already gutted
Section 5 of the VRA in 2013's Shelby County v. Holder , claiming 'things have changed.' They seem to forget Jim Crow laws didn't magically disappear, they just rebranded. This isn't about race being considered; it's about denying fair representation to a demographic systematically shut out. When maps are drawn to dilute Black votes, it's 'state’s rights.' When those maps are challenged to create
equitable representation, suddenly it's 'race-based.' One might wonder why, after a history of explicit racial segregation, the mechanisms to prevent its modern iteration are consistently portrayed as the problem, not the solution.