Supreme Court Limits Race in Redistricting

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Wednesday in Louisiana v. Callais that race cannot play a predominant role in drawing congressional districts under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, significantly limiting the creation of majority-minority districts to prevent vote dilution.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, joined by the court's five other conservative justices. The decision holds that mapmakers may consider race only if it aligns with traditional districting criteria such as compactness and contiguity, and only after a strong inference of intentional racial discrimination is shown. Alito cited the court's 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which curtailed race-conscious admissions policies, to support the approach.

The ruling reverses years of lower court interpretations that had allowed race-conscious districting when it did not unduly subordinate other redistricting principles. Previously, courts had upheld majority-minority districts in cases where they could be drawn without creating oddly shaped boundaries, such as long, narrow districts.

Justice Elena Kagan dissented, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson....