Black voters could lose congressional seats after Supreme Court guts Voting Rights Act protection

The Supreme Court’s gutting of a key Voting Rights Act protection is threatening to erase hard-won congressional representation for Black voters in Louisiana and Alabama — and Democrats are racing to court to stop it.

The high court ruled Wednesday that Louisiana’s majority-Black district map violated the Voting Rights Act, reversing a lower court order that had guaranteed Black voters — and Democrats — a majority in two of the state’s six congressional districts. Under the previous map, Republicans held five of six seats.

The ruling left Louisiana’s electoral future unsettled. Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, declared a state of emergency to halt voting — even though tens of thousands of absentee ballots had already been mailed and some had been cast and returned.

Democrats immediately sued. “This court is asked to do something simple: stop a state from canceling an election that is already underway,” challengers said in a lawsuit filed Thursday.

A lower court agreed, barring Louisiana from using the old 5-1 Republican map.

In Alabama, state officials argued the ruling clears the way for a similar GOP-friendly redraw. The NAACP and the National Redistricting Foundation urged the Supreme Court not to fast-track those cases while voters are already casting ballots.

Read more:

• Democrats rush to court to stop GOP states’ new redistricting push

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