How the Supreme Court demolished the Voting Rights Act

"The Supreme Court affirmed that Louisiana's map with the second majority-Black district violated the Constitution. The Court called the drawing of the district 'racial discrimination' for which the state had no 'compelling interest.'"

"The Court reached this decision by narrowing the meaning of Section 2 to what it was before Congress amended the statute in 1982, stating that the only way for a state to violate Section 2 is to intentionally discriminate."

For forty years, courts recognized that Section 2 addressed racially discriminatory effects on voting. A Catch-22 emerged as states risked constitutional violations while trying to comply with the V.R.A. In 2022, Louisiana was found likely in violation for creating one majority-Black district. When it attempted to create a second, non-Black voters challenged it as a racial gerrymander. The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's ruling, stating the second district constituted racial discrimination without a compelling interest, narrowing Section 2's interpretation to intentional discrimination only.

Read at The New Yorker