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The Supreme Court\u2019s liberal justices called their colleagues\u2019 decision clawing back race-based redistricting on Wednesday a \u201cnow-completed demolition\u201d of the Voting Rights Act.<\/p>\n
In a 48-page dissent, Justice Elena Kagan held up the landmark 1965 law as helpful to the nation\u2019s progress on racial discrimination.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this last stage, the Court\u2019s gutting of Section 2 puts that achievement in peril,\u201d Kagan wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cI dissent because Congress elected otherwise,\u201d she continued. \u201cI dissent because the Court betrays its duty to faithfully implement the great statute Congress wrote. I dissent because the Court\u2019s decision will set back the foundational right Congress granted of racial equality in electoral opportunity. I dissent.\u201d<\/p>\n
She read her dissent aloud from the bench, a rare move the justices reserve for when they want to express their strong disagreements in a case.<\/p>\n
Kagan\u2019s opinion was joined by her two fellow liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.<\/p>\n
It came as the Supreme Court declared Louisiana\u2019s addition of a second majority-Black congressional district an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The 6-3 decision along ideological lines stands to claw back advocacy groups\u2019 ability to force new districts over claims that minority voting power is being diluted.<\/p>\n
As Justice Samuel Alito cast the conservative majority\u2019s decision as merely an \u201cupdate\u201d to the Voting Rights Act framework that would ensure judges don\u2019t stretch the law too far, Kagan said he was understating the impact. \u201cEven antiseptic,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
Kagan accused her colleagues of being set on destroying the Voting Rights Act for more than a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was born of the literal blood of Union soldiers and civil rights marchers,\u201d Kagan wrote of the law. \u201cIt ushered in awe-inspiring change, bringing this Nation closer to fulfilling the ideals of democracy and racial equality. And it has been repeatedly, and overwhelmingly, reauthorized by the people\u2019s representatives in Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly they have the right to say it is no longer needed\u2014not the Members of this Court,\u201d Kagan continued. \u201cI dissent, then, from this latest chapter in the majority\u2019s now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the\u00a0ruling\u00a0most\u00a0immediately\u00a0impacts\u00a0Louisiana, it stands to\u00a0impact\u00a0the future of redistricting fights\u00a0where\u00a0majority representation has been boosted to\u00a0comply with\u00a0the Voting Rights Act.<\/p>\n
The decision not only impacts congressional districts but any kind of election maps drawn in the country \u2014 including those drawn for state, municipal and local bodies like state supreme courts, public service commissions and city councils, among others.<\/p>\n
That means the ruling will likely impact a redistricting war that has erupted during the second Trump administration and has already seen states such as Texas and California redraw their maps to give Republicans and Democrats in those states, respectively, an advantage.<\/p>\n
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