The Supreme Court Ends Multiracial Democracy as We Know It

About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strike down a Louisiana congressional map, affecting voting rights and redistricting efforts in several states.

The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a fatal blow to the Voting Rights Act, triggering a new wave of redistricting fights in the midst of midterm primary elections. Last week, the court struck down a Louisiana congressional map with a second majority-Black district. The decision requires there to be evidence of intentional racism to prove that a map is discriminatory, making it nearly impossible to successfully challenge racial gerrymandering.  Following the 6-3 decision along partisan lines, Louisiana suspended its already active congressional primary, throwing out cast ballots. Alabama’s Republican governor took steps to gerrymander her state's maps ahead of November elections. Tennessee GOP leaders also convened a special session to eliminate the last remaining Democratic stronghold in the state, home to Memphis, a majority-Black city and district; the new map would split Memphis into three districts and further split Nashville and the surrounding counties into five districts. On Thursday, Tennessee Gov. Lee  signed a bill  that repealed a state law prohibiting mid-decade redistricting, and the new map was passed by Tennessee Republicans. “The primary goal of what…

Topics covered

• Voting Rights Act
• redistricting
• racial gerrymandering
• political representation
• Supreme Court decisions
• midterm elections

Keywords

• Voting Rights Act
• redistricting
• gerrymandering
• Supreme Court
• political representation
• Louisiana
• Tennessee
• Alabama
• midterm elections

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: U.S. Supreme Court, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee

Places: Memphis, Nashville

More episodes of The Intercept Briefing

• The Right’s “Election Fraud” Cry for Midterms Previewed in Primaries · June 12, 2026 · 32 min
• Warehousing Human Beings · June 5, 2026 · 40 min
• The Race to Build AI Data Centers — Before the People Can Protest · May 29, 2026 · 36 min
• AIPAC, AI, Crypto and Gambling Are Hiding Their Big Election Spends · May 22, 2026 · 27 min
• “We Will Find You and We Will Kill You” · May 15, 2026 · 42 min
• Another Assassination Attempt, More Fertilizer for Conspiracy Theories · May 1, 2026 · 46 min