U.S. Supreme Court strikes Louisiana’s congressional districts for being based on race

By Bob Unruh

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a lower court’s order demanding Louisiana create a second black-majority congressional district was unconstitutional, giving President Donald Trump and Republicans a massive victory and posing possible complications for a number of state congressional maps.

The ruling struck Louisiana’s map as unconstitutional because the state created, on court orders, a second majority-black district in 2024.

The lower court insisted it was required to comply with Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which purportedly prevents states from diluting minority votes.

The map had been challenged by the Trump administration as well as state officials who said it was nothing more than a racial gerrymander in violation of the 14th Amendment.

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Agreed, said the high court, with all six conservative justices voting to prevent application of the 2024 boundaries.

Online was the report, “The Supreme Court has ruled that drawing Congressional districts based on race under the Voting Rights Act is UNCONSTITUTIONAL, 6-3 This is a HUGE win, and could have MASSIVE ramifications for the 2026 midterms Democrats for YEARS have sued over and over again to FORCE states like Louisiana to create black majority districts Louisiana’s map has now been thrown out. If SCOTUS ends up gutting the act, a DOZEN Democrat districts could flip red overnight.”

Hashim Mooppan, principal deputy solicitor general, told the court during arguments, “If these were white Democrats, there’s no reason to think they would have a second district, none.

“And so what is happening here is, their argument is, ‘Because these Democrats happen to be black, they get a second district.’ If they were all white, we all agree they wouldn’t get the same.”

The state has four Republicans in the House, as well as two Democrats, elected in “majority-black” districts.

“Hey look at that. The Supreme Court agrees that reverse racism is still racism,” commenters continued.

The court ruling noted the arguments started some time ago when it was revealed that there was a “long-unresolved question whether compliance with the Voting Rights Act provides a compelling reason that may justify the intentional use of race in drawing legislative districts.”

“For over 30 years, the Court has simply assumed for the sake of argument that the answer is yes,” the ruling noted.

But the justices held that, “Because the Voting Rights Act did not require Louisiana to create an additional majority-minority district, no compelling interest justified the State’s use of race in creating SB8, and that map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

Explained the justices, “The Constitution almost never permits a State to discriminate on the basis of race, and such discrimination triggers strict scrutiny. The Court’s precedents have identified ‘only two compelling interests’ that can satisfy strict scrutiny: ‘avoiding imminent and serious risks to human safety in prisons,’ and ‘remediating specific, identified instances of past discrimination that violated the Constitution or a statute.'”

A report at the New York Post said, “According to one analysis from Democratic voting groups Fair Fight Action and the Black Voters Matter Fund, Republican officials could redraw 19 congressional districts in the South and Midwest to be significantly more favorable to the GOP as a direct result of Tuesday’s ruling.”

The impact on the 2026 elections still has to be determined.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, which was joined by Justices Thomas, Roberts, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett. The trio of leftists on the court, Justices Kagan, Sotomayor and Jackson, said the use of such racism was proper.

Kagan complained, “The consequences are likely to be far-reaching and grave. Today’s decision renders Section 2 all but a dead letter. In the States where that law continues to matter—the States still marked by residential segregation and racially polarized voting—minority voters can now be cracked out of the electoral process. The decision here is about Louisiana’s District 6. But so too it is about Louisiana’s District 2. And so too it is about the many other districts, particularly in the South, that in the last half-century have given minority citizens, and particularly African Americans, a meaningful political voice. After today, those districts exist only on sufferance, and probably not for long. If other States follow Louisiana’s lead, the minority citizens residing there will no longer have an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. And minority representation in government institutions will sharply decline.”

Thomas countered, “This Court should never have interpreted §2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to effectively give racial groups ‘an entitlement to roughly proportional representation.’ By doing so, the Court led legislatures and courts to ‘systematically divid[e] the country into electoral districts along racial lines.'”

The majority said the fight was over the state’s “Intentional racial discrimination.”

“In sum, because the Voting Rights Act did not require Louisiana to create an additional majority-minority district, no compelling interest justified the State’s use of race in creating SB8. That map is an unconstitutional gerrymander, and its use would violate the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.”

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.


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