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VRA Gutted: SCOTUS Intentional-Discrimination Test & 17 States at Risk
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
The Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais replaces the Voting Rights Act's disparate-impact standard with a tougher intentional-discrimination test, leaving 17 jurisdictions scrambling to redraw maps. Republicans in Texas, Florida, and four other states move fast on redistricting as the DOJ abandons minority voting cases.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
The Supreme Court just handed Alabama's Republican legislature the green light to eliminate the state's second majority-Black congressional district, and the effects are spreading fast across the country. The ruling came down Monday.
Seventeen or more state and local jurisdictions are now scrambling to reassess their maps in light of this new standard. That's not a marginal number.
The Justice Department's posture makes the legal shift more durable. The Trump administration dropped Biden-era cases that had been defending minority voting rights, and the DOJ publicly welcomed Monday's ruling.
Republicans are moving quickly on the redistricting opportunity this creates. Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, and Tennessee are all in play.
Separate from the voting rights story, the Senate parliamentarian on Saturday blocked a one-billion-dollar security funding proposal for Trump's White House ballroom project. The ruling was procedural: the proposal violates budget reconciliation rules.
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