Supreme Court throws out Louisiana legislative map
The Supreme Court has struck down a Louisiana congressional map that could have limited the power of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Following Wednesday’s landmark Supreme Court ruling, lawmakers across the country are scrambling to decide whether states can redraw their congressional boundaries before the midterm elections.
The Louisiana v. Calais decision weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prevented racial gerrymandering, and ruled that partisan redistricting does not violate the law’s protections.
The move comes as part of a redistricting arms race, with Texas, California and Virginia taking steps to redraw their districts ahead of midterm elections.
Early voting for Georgia’s midterm primaries has already begun (and is seeing record turnout), but that hasn’t stopped high-profile Republicans from petitioning to change the state’s congressional districts by November.
What does the Louisiana Supreme Court’s decision mean?
“The Louisiana decision, in many ways, clarified the short-to-medium term future of voting rights law and how it will shape redistricting,” Bernard Fraga, a political scientist, author, and professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said in an interview with USA TODAY.
“Essentially, the justices seem to be suggesting that claims of racial discrimination that are the result of districting that has a discriminatory effect will not receive as much scrutiny as they used to, so it will be more difficult for plaintiffs representing minority groups to prove that harm has occurred,” Fraga said.
Fraga said the court would more or less “turn a blind eye” to partisan gerrymandering, in Justice Alito’s words, but it would give more states the opportunity to redraw electoral districts and split voting blocs without violating the Voting Rights Act.
Fraga said the decision was based on past “evisceration” of the Voting Rights Act, even though it had unanimous bipartisan support just 20 years ago.
“This is really a huge change over the last 20 years,” Fraga said.
Prominent Republican gubernatorial candidates and legislators support new course
Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Bert Jones issued a statement of support shortly after the Supreme Court ruling. Jones is running for governor in a tight primary race with health care CEO Rick Jackson, who is tied in the polls.
“I commend the Supreme Court’s decision in the Louisiana redistricting case,” Jones wrote. “I agree that in a society built on equal protection of the laws, no state should be directed to draw its legislative maps based on race. Given that Georgia was directed to do so in its last redistricting, I fully support following today’s decision to redraw the state’s legislative maps.”
Jackson supported that opinion while taking a jab at his opponent.
“The Legislature already needed a special session because Bert Jones jeopardized future Georgia elections and failed to make our elections more secure. In light of today’s Supreme Court decision, map redrawing must also be on the agenda,” Jackson wrote in an April 29 post on X. “What happened in Virginia is just the tip of the spear as Democrats seek to regain power through redistricting nationwide. There is no time to waste.”
Newly elected MAGA Congressman Clay Fuller, from Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former district, pointed to states with all-Democrat Houses of Representatives, including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
“All states do not have a Republican House of Representatives. 21 seats,” he wrote in a post on X, adding, “I don’t want to hear any complaints from Democrats about redistricting in the South.”
Early voting has already begun for Georgia’s redistricting, which will require Gov. Brian Kemp to reconvene the Legislature. He’s not ready to do that.
Governor Kemp says 2026 is too late, 2028 is too late
In an interview Friday with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kemp said he had already begun redrawing districts before the November midterm elections, but that he supports redrawing them before the 2028 general election.
“Voting has already begun for the 2026 election,” Kemp told the outlet. “However, it is clear that Mr. Karais is demanding that Georgia adopt new electoral maps by the 2028 election cycle.”
It may not be up to Kemp.
All seats in the state Legislature are up for election this year, and polls so far have shown Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms leading in the gubernatorial race. Bottoms has also been formally endorsed by former President Joe Biden.
If the seat goes to Democrats in November and the governor’s seat turns blue, Georgia’s redistricting will look much different than it did under Kemp’s leadership.
State Republicans like Sen. and Lieutenant Governor candidate Greg Dolezal are calling on Kemp to “be bold” and move quickly to redraw Georgia’s maps before the administration takes over.
Georgia could be a testing ground for Supreme Court decisions
Georgia may not be the only state considering redrawing its congressional maps in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision, but the state could be a true litmus test of whether the decision actually works without depriving racial minorities of representation.
Fraga said Georgia Republicans may want to win two of the five seats currently held by Democrats and reroute them to Republican districts.
“That’s the complexity of this decision, and where it really exposes some of the contradictions of the past 20 years or so of Supreme Court decisions regarding the Voting Rights Act,” Fraga said. “There’s a good chance that the redistricting districts that are subject to redistricting could essentially dismantle majority-black districts and districts that have long been used as a way to ensure meaningful representation for black Georgians, but not proportionally.”
This could include the Diocese of Sanford in South Georgia, the Albany area, and even some areas around metro Atlanta.
“I think there is an inherent contradiction in decisions about race and political party, and that contradiction is most evident in states like Georgia that are highly racially polarized, where white voters vote strongly for Republicans and black voters vote strongly for Democrats in the state. It is very difficult to separate these factors from each other,” Fraga said. “Evidence has been accumulating for decades, if not centuries, that race and political party are closely intertwined, especially in the South. The fact is that if Republicans were to gain control of the House districts, they would at least divide up districts with significant black populations.”
Eileen Wright is an Atlanta Connect reporter for USA Today’s Deep South Connect team, covering midterm races in Georgia. X Find her at @IreneEWright or email her at ismith@usatodayco.com.
