How the US Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act could give Trump’s GOP a possible lifeline
The ruling majority on the US Supreme Court enacted much of the most important voting rights legislation designed to ensure African-American representation in Congress, and the resulting effects could be far-reaching and transformative.
In a split 6-3 decision, the high court ruled Wednesday that Louisiana’s congressional map was unconstitutional because the state took too much into account race when drawing its voting districts.
The justices ruled that the state’s “majority” district, where the majority of voters are Black, violated the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution because it unfairly discriminates against citizens based on race.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority in the case, said that while race-based voting laws may have been appropriate in the past, there has been a “massive social revolution,” especially in the South, so such considerations are unnecessary now.
Justice Clarence Thomas, a long-time critic of race laws, said the court’s decision would “significantly put an end to this legal crisis of voting rights,” in which black voters received special consideration because of past Jim Crow-era laws that shut most of them out of the voting process.
In her three-judge dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the court’s “cutting down” of election laws puts past black electoral success “at risk.”
This is how US political science professor Matthew Lebo sees it.
“The most important voting rights law in American history is almost dead,” Lebo said in an interview with CBC News.
“The judges act as if racism is dead. However, the result is that the representation of the country will look like it used to be racist in voting and representation.”
The court’s decision, which comes as it does in the early season of choosing candidates for the mid-term elections in November, sent shockwaves through political circles.
Florida, which was already considering changing its maps to give Republicans a better chance in that state, is now legal as it redraws its districts and reduces the voting power of Blacks.
Indeed, a few hours after the court issued its decision, the Florida House passed a well-decorated map.
On Thursday, Louisiana took the unusual step of suspending primaries while weighing new maps that would reduce black representation. Other Southern states are also considering reforms. In all, up to 15 House districts are currently represented by Black members of Congress may be directed.
Like many issues in the States, race is a big issue in politics.
According to Pew Research’s June 2025 report, the majority of Black voters are Democrats, while Republicans are mostly white. The elimination of black seats would mean fewer Democrats in Congress, which could give President Donald Trump’s party an advantage.
That may explain why Trump has been so reluctant to praise the Supreme Court’s decision. “That’s the kind of governance I like,” he said.
What is the Voting Rights Act?
Former president Lyndon B. Johnson and many of his Democratic allies in Congress passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965 as part of a broader package of civil rights laws to end apartheid-era policies that dominated African-Americans.
The law was designed to force states to uphold the 15th amendment, which guaranteed that the right to vote could not be denied on the basis of race.
Johnson’s bill abolished discriminatory practices, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, that had prevented many blacks from exercising their right to vote. Although Mississippi had the highest Black population of any state in the 1960s, the United States Commission on Civil Rights noted that in 1964, only 6.7 percent of eligible Black voters registered to vote.
The law, which was rewritten and expanded in 1981, worked as intended: the difference in registration rates between white and black voters fell sharply in the following decades.
How does this decision change the law?
Wednesday’s Supreme Court decision focused on a specific part of the act — Section 2 — that allows concerned voters and the federal Justice Department to challenge maps that also restrict voting laws that deny or limit the voting power of minority communities.
That section, guaranteeing voters the right to “choose the representatives of their choice,” allowed for the creation of predominantly Black districts where voters of color had the opportunity to send a Black congressman to Washington, barring white delegates from minority states.
Over time, more people of color were elected.
According to statistics compiled by the Pew Research Center, the current 119th Congress is more racially and ethnically diverse than any on record.
But the high court said Section 2 should be limited in its application going forward to ban maps like Louisiana’s, which have now been deemed an “unconstitutional gerrymander” because race is a major factor in determining their boundaries.
After Wednesday’s ruling, the only way to invoke the Voting Rights Act and get a legal remedy is to prove an overt discriminatory intent on the part of those who draw these maps — and that can be difficult.
What is the practical effect of this decision?
“Now, states can reduce minority voting power without being penalized by spreading it across congressional districts,” Lebo said.
“Louisiana is going to go back and redraw its map, and there’s going to be some underpopulated districts because of that,” he said, predicting that, statewide, there will be more white lawmakers and fewer from minority communities.
After Texas sparked controversy by gaining five more House seats by redrawing its federal maps, California responded with one of its own. Andrew Chang breaks down how gerrymandering works and how it could affect the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections. Photos provided by The Canadian Press, Reuters and Getty Images
In places where Black voting power won’t be completely diluted, Lebo said GOP-controlled states will likely pursue “packaging” instead.
That’s the idea of drawing districts that “pack” Black voters into as few districts as possible so that more seats are white-majority and, in turn, reliably Republican.
Florida’s new state maps make changes along these lines.
Redistricting is dispersing Democratic voters in Republican-held areas, giving left-leaning parties less of a chance.
If past patterns hold, changes there could give Republicans 24 of the 28 congressional seats.
What are the candidates saying?
In an interview with CBC News, Allen Spence, a Democratic candidate for Congress in southwest Florida, says people like him are on the fringes.
Florida’s new districts were quickly drawn without public input and a court challenge is still possible. He doesn’t really know where he will campaign right now because the boundaries are uncertain.
All of a sudden, places that looked like friendly places to him, such as the mostly Hispanic Lehigh Acres near Ft. Myers, Fla., were removed from his district, he said, and others where he was not present much were added.
“It is very difficult to run a campaign,” he said. “The candidates are not sure.”
Spence says Democrats need to push for “revolution at the ballot box” to sway Republicans and pass a national anti-bullying law.
“We need to get these people out, that’s what I want,” he said of Republicans.
Some see the Supreme Court’s decision as a good attempt to remove race from politics.
Josh Williams, a black Republican running to represent a white Ohio district in Congress, said the idea that black people need “special districts carved out for themselves is complete nonsense.”
“It is illegal and unconstitutional,” he said in a social media post.
Where else could this have an impact?
With the exception of Florida and Louisiana, other states in the South are making changes to their maps to eliminate districts with large black populations, in the hope that the GOP can gain more seats and avoid an electoral disaster in the midterms, even as recent polls suggest that Trump’s approval rating is at an all-time low in his second term.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, a gubernatorial candidate, urged Republicans in her state to give themselves another district there.
“I vowed to keep Tennessee a red state, and as Governor, I will do everything I can to make this map a reality,” he said, posting a photo of a map where the majority-Black state of Memphis, Tenn., is gone and Democrats have been completely wiped out.
Other states that Democrats fear could be targeted include Alabama and Mississippi.
