Instant Reaction: Supreme Court Curbs Use of Race in Drawing Voting Districts

Instant Reaction: Supreme Court Curbs Use of Race in Drawing Voting Districts

From Balance of Power by Bloomberg

April 29, 2026 · 11 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the Supreme Court's ruling that limits the use of the Voting Rights Act in creating predominantly Black or Hispanic election districts.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Topics covered

  • Supreme Court
  • Voting Rights Act
  • election districts
  • racial discrimination
  • Republican efforts
  • midterm elections

Keywords

  • Supreme Court
  • Voting Rights Act
  • election districts
  • racial discrimination
  • midterms

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: US Supreme Court, Voting Rights Act

Places: Louisiana

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