How Voting Rights Groups Are Rallying to Fight After the Supreme Court Hollowed a Landmark Law

In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling to narrow a core provision of the Voting Rights Act, voting and civil rights advocates in Southern states are rallying to attempt to protect the electoral power of racial minority groups. The conservative-majority court overturned Louisiana’s electoral map in a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines on Wednesday, finding that redrawing the state’s voting lines to add a second Black-majority district constituted an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”The decision significantly weakens Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which outlaws racial discrimination in voting and has been used for decades to protect against attempts to diminish minority voters’ electoral strength.The ruling could have sweeping consequences for minority representation in government and the balance of power in Congress. It opens the door for Republican-led states, particularly in the South, to redraw congressional maps to eliminate some majority-minority districts represented by Democrats in favor of new lines that could help the GOP gain additional seats in the House.“Under the Court’s new view of Section 2, a State can, without legal consequence, systematically dilute minority citizens’ voting power,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a dissenting opinion joined by her liberal colleagues that she opted to read out loud