Last week, in a six-to-three ruling along ideological lines, the Supreme Court dealt a major blow to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
That’s the landmark Civil Rights era law designed to prevent racial discrimination in an election. The law was passed to unravel Jim Crow era policies that limited or blocked Black Americans’ access to the ballot.
The decision in Louisiana v. Callais struck down Louisiana’s congressional map as an “unconstitutional gerrymander.”
But the ruling goes further. It effectively rewrites the rules for how the Voting Rights Act can be used to challenge discriminatory maps, making it much harder to do so going forward. It’s the latest in a string of rulings making the last all but moot.
We tackle the race to redistrict across America and we talk about how this hugely consequential ruling changes an election season already in full swing.
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