A 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais has eviscerated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and opened the door for states to enact discriminatory voting maps and laws.
This decision — which contradicts the text of the Voting Rights Act, the will of Congress and the Constitution — is one of the most consequential setbacks for our multiracial democracy in a generation.
For six decades, the VRA has served as the backbone of federal protections against racial discrimination in our elections — an essential guardrail ensuring that every American, regardless of race, has a meaningful opportunity to participate in the political process.
With this ruling, the Court has struck down a congressional map that finally allowed Black voters in Louisiana to have the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. More broadly, the justices have upended decades of precedent, ignored the will of Congress and left voters with little recourse to challenge racially discriminatory maps or voting laws.
Louisiana v. Callais: How did we get here?
Black voters in Louisiana have been fighting for a fair congressional map for years. Following a successful challenge under Section 2 of the VRA, a federal court ruled that Louisiana's congressional map was discriminatory and needed to be redrawn to create an additional district where Black voters could have the opportunity to elect their candidates of choice.
Louisiana did so and adopted a map with two opportunity districts. This resulted in the election of two Black Louisianians to Congress for the first time in history.
Then, a group of self-described "non-Black" voters filed suit claiming that the VRA-compliant map was an illegal racial gerrymander.
The case went up to the U.S. Supreme Court where Campaign Legal Center submitted amicus briefs in 2024 and 2025 to ensure that Section 2, one of the most important federal civil rights provisions in this country’s history, could continue to protect voters.
In a historic blow to this landmark legislation, the Supreme Court’s decision in Callais on April 29, 2026, appears to clear the way for Louisiana — and other states — to engage in the discriminatory practice of vote dilution. This will particularly impact Black and brown voters who have long fought for fair representation at the federal, state and local levels.
And with this decision, the Court has made it clear that racial discrimination will be allowed so long as it is done under the guise of partisanship. Contrary to the text of the VRA, the Constitution and Congress’ intent, the Supreme Court’s majority has once again issued a decision that will negatively impact millions of Americans and their freedom to vote, while leaving little recourse for those voters to challenge this discrimination.
While claiming to make only minor tweaks to the long-standing framework under which challenges to racially discriminatory districts are analyzed, the Callais decision is instead a fundamental overhaul.
Going forward, voters will have to clear new evidentiary hurdles, and states can defend against virtually any claim of racially discriminatory map-drawing simply by claiming they instead discriminated based on political party — even though race and partisanship are often difficult, if not impossible, to disentangle, especially in the South.
The decision provides a roadmap for states to return to pre-1965 race discrimination in redistricting, despite Congress’s repeated and overwhelming reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, including as recently as 2006.
In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan captured the gravity of this devastating decision, writing:
“[The Voting Rights Act] 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’s representatives in Congress. Only they have the right to say it is no longer needed — not the Members of this Court. I dissent, then, from this latest chapter in the majority’s now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act.”
Where do we go from here?
While the Supreme Court’s decision is a major setback, it is not the end of the fight for fair representation. The responsibility now shifts to Congress and state legislatures to ramp up their efforts to protect the freedom to vote, and Campaign Legal Center and the entire pro-democracy movement will continue to advocate for policy solutions that uphold the ideals of our democracy.
Congress can and must act to enact protections nationwide against racial and partisan discrimination in redistricting, fulfilling its role as a co-equal branch of government and passing legislation to address the Supreme Court’s repeated undermining of this landmark legislation.
States can also adopt their own voting rights protections — such as State Voting Rights Acts — ensuring that voters are shielded from discrimination even when federal protections falter.
The fight for voting rights has never been linear. Every generation has faced attempts to restrict access to the ballot box, and every generation has pushed back. This moment is no different. Campaign Legal Center will continue our work litigating, advocating and fighting to ensure that all Americans can participate meaningfully in the democratic process, particularly Americans who have faced political barriers because of race, ethnicity or economic status. Join us.