The text of the Voting Rights Act specifically says minority populations have no collective right to representation equal to their share of the population. After 40 years of bad precedent, the Supreme Court finally returned to the original meaning of that text on Wednesday, bringing an end to an era of legalized racial gerrymandering.
Before the 2020 census, Louisiana’s congressional map included six seats: five held by Republicans and one held by a Democrat. After the census, the Louisiana legislature produced a new map reflecting population changes within the state. The new map produced the same partisan breakdown: five seats with Republican majorities and one seat with a Democratic majority.
Democratic Party activists then sued in federal court, claiming the new map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because black residents made up 33% of Louisiana’s population, but only 16% of the state’s congressional districts had black majorities. Relying on
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