https://www.reuters.com/world/us-supreme-court-blocks-louisiana-voting-map-with-second-black-majority-district-2026-04-29/
WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act - making it harder for minorities to challenge electoral maps as racially discriminatory under the landmark civil rights law - in a victory for Louisiana Republicans and President Donald Trump's administration.
The court, in a 6-3 ruling powered by its conservative members, blocked an electoral map that had given Louisiana a second Black-majority U.S. congressional district. With November congressional elections looming, the decision could prompt Republican-led states to seek to redraw electoral maps in an effort to put at risk seats considered safely Democratic.
Justice Elena Kagan, in a dissent joined by the two other liberal justices, said the ruling rendered the Voting Rights Act "all but a dead letter," and predicted "grave" consequences.
"Under the court's new view of Section 2, a state can, without legal consequence, systematically dilute minority citizens' voting power," Kagan wrote. "Of course, the majority does not announce today's holding that way. Its opinion is understated, even antiseptic. The majority claims only to be 'updating' our Section 2 law, as though through a few technical tweaks."
"But in fact, those 'updates' eviscerate the law, so that it will not remedy even the classic example of vote dilution given above," Kagan added.
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