Liberal Supreme Court justices say majority has ‘completed demolition’ of Voting Rights Act
The Supreme Court’s liberal justices called their colleagues’ decision Wednesday to reverse race-based redistricting the “now complete destruction” of the Voting Rights Act.
One 48 pages of oppositionJustice Elena Kagan argued that the landmark 1965 law helped the country move forward on racial segregation.
“At this final stage, the Court’s evisceration of Part 2 jeopardizes that success,” Kagan wrote.
“I oppose it because Congress chose otherwise,” he continued. “I dissent because the Court betrays its duty to faithfully enforce the great law that Congress has written. I dissent because the Court’s decision will roll back Congress’s fundamental right to racial equality in electoral opportunity. I dissent.”
He read his dissent aloud from the podium; This is a rare move that judges use when they want to express strong disagreement in a case.
Kagan’s opinion was joined by two fellow liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
This came as the Supreme Court declared that adding a second majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana was unconstitutional apartheid. The 6-3 decision along ideological lines is meant to roll back the ability of advocacy groups to push for new districts over claims it dilutes the voting power of minorities.
While Justice Samuel Alito characterized the conservative majority’s decision as merely an “update” to the Voting Rights Act framework that would ensure the justices would not push the law too far, Kagan said she was underestimating the impact. “Even antiseptic,” he wrote.
Kagan accused her colleagues of being determined to destroy the Voting Rights Act for more than a decade.
“It was born from the true blood of Union soldiers and civil rights marchers,” Kagan wrote of the law. “This has led to astonishing change, moving this Nation closer to realizing the ideals of democracy and racial equality. And it has been reauthorized repeatedly and overwhelmingly by the people’s representatives in Congress.”
“They alone have the right to say this is no longer needed, not the Members of this Court,” Kagan continued. “So I oppose this final part of the majority’s process of destroying the Voting Rights Act.”
Although the decision directly affects Louisiana, it is also likely to affect the future of redistricting fights in which majority representation is increased in accordance with the Voting Rights Act.
The decision affects not only congressional districts but every electoral map drawn in the country, including those drawn for state, municipal and local bodies such as state supreme courts, public service commissions and city councils.
That means the decision will likely impact the redistricting battle that broke out during the second Trump administration, in which states like Texas and California redrew their maps to give advantages to Republicans and Democrats in those states.
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