Supreme Court Curbs Use of Race in Drawing Voting Districts

[RandySF]

The US Supreme Court limited the use of the Voting Rights Act to create predominantly Black or Hispanic election districts in a major constitutional ruling that buttresses Republican efforts to keep control of the House in this year’s midterms and beyond.

Voting 6-3 along ideological lines, the justices rejected a Louisiana congressional map that was drawn with a second majority-Black district after a lower court found an earlier map to be discriminatory.

The Supreme Court ruling undercuts what had been the most significant remaining part of the Voting Rights Act, a law passed in 1965 to address rampant discrimination against Black voters. The justices had already significantly weakened the law twice since 2013.




https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-29/supreme-court-curbs-use-of-race-in-drawing-voting-districts?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc3NzQ3MjIxOCwiZXhwIjoxNzc4MDc3MDE4LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJURTlFMEdLSzNOWUgwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiIxOTMwQzdBNkYyODA0MTg4OTZCRjk3QzUyQ0MxMkVDOCJ9.haEkN4Z1vgJqsEPlRCnyH5hu3-V1Y_fr06nbGYi8hHM&leadSource=uverify%20wall

[displacedvermoter]

1. Well, yeah...

Several of these fuckers have been groomed since law school for this moment!

[Lovie777]

2. It may backfire on the GQP......

[Dangling0826]

6. How?

I can't see how, I only see the racist Republicans will benefit from this; Democrats don't usually do this, so how could it backfire?

[Cirsium]

8. How it can backfire

Maximizing the number of districts that lean Republican causes the margins in those districts to shrink. it trades a few very safe districts for a larger number of moderately safe ones. That tradeoff is where the risk comes in. Gerrymandering doesn’t simply make every district close—it actually trades a few very safe districts for a larger number of somewhat safe ones. That trade is what creates both the advantage and the risk.

Imagine a state with more voters from one party than the other—say 60 blue voters and 40 red voters, divided into five districts. If the districts are drawn fairly, the blue party might win three districts and the red party might win two, with each district having a comfortable margin. In that situation, most races are not especially close, so small changes in voter preferences don’t change the outcome very much.

Now consider what happens if the lines are drawn to favor the red party. The blue voters might be “packed” into one district where they win overwhelmingly, while the remaining voters are spread across the other four districts so that red wins each of them. This produces a better outcome for red—four seats instead of three—but the margins in those four districts are no longer as large as before. Instead of winning comfortably, red is now winning several districts by more modest margins.

That’s where the risk comes in. Because the voters have been spread more thinly, a small shift in opinion—just a few voters in each district—can flip multiple seats at once. In the fair map, those same small shifts might not be enough to change any outcomes, because the margins are larger. In the gerrymandered map, however, the advantage depends on maintaining several narrower leads, and those leads are easier to lose.

A simple way to put it is that gerrymandering turns a few very safe wins into a larger number of less secure ones. It can increase the number of seats a party wins, but it also makes those wins more vulnerable. That’s why a relatively small statewide swing can sometimes cause a dramatic reversal when districts have been drawn this way.

[a kennedy]

3. All the Civil Rights activists who have passed away, ARE ROLLING IN THEIR GRAVES!!!!!!!

🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬

[spanone]

4. Most racist 'supreme' court in our history.

[Johonny]

5. Court increases use of race

To redraw lines to minimize no white male vote...

Oh, this court is good with using race...

[Johnny2X2X]

7. Exactly

They might as well have spelled out that only the white race should be considered for drawing districts. Every red state used race to draw districts this way fora white majority.

[Cirsium]

9. The headline is a lie

The Supreme Court did not curb the use of race in drawing voting districts. Quite the opposite. It validated using race to draw voting districts, provided that the process always favors white voters.

[pecosbob]

10. Logically, this would lead to blue states fencing off Republicans into one district.

That would require that Democrats fight fire with fire, of course, but I would think Republicans would stand to lose more than they would gain in the long run. The dirty south and parts of the Midwest and west would be red...everything else would be blue. Bottom line...blue states have a lot more people which will equal more votes.