Stuart Naifeh, Manager of the Redistricting Project at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., right, following arguments before the United States Supreme Court in Louisiana v. Callais on March 24, 2025. Last year, Louisiana sent two Black representatives to Congress for the first time in almost three decades under a congressional map being challenged as unfair to the state’s non-Black residents. The Supreme Court heard that challenge in the latest case that could affect how states can consider race when creating legislative maps.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court is taking up a racially and politically charged case from Louisiana that tests a landmark civil rights law enacted 60 years ago to prevent racial discrimination in voting.

In one of their biggest cases of the year, the court on Oct. 15 is debating whether electoral districts can be created to protect the voting rights of minorities without discriminating against voters of other races.

Section Two of the Voting Rights Act tries to keep legislative map drawers from diluting the votes of racial minorities by either packing them into one district or spreading them out among too many districts to have an impact.

But Louisiana argues the redistricting protections are “both unworkable and unconstitutional.”

The Justice Department under President Donald Trump likewise said that even if the provision was constitutional when it was enacted, it’s not now.

A ruling along those lines could reduce the number of racial minorities in office at all levels of government.

And it could give the GOP an electoral boost, including in efforts to keep its slim House majority.

Ongoing battle over Louisiana's congressional map

The controversy grew out of Louisiana’s attempt to account for population shifts after the 2020 census. The legislature drew a new congressional map that had only one majority-Black district out of six, even though Black people make up about one-third of the population.

When a group of Black voters sued, a judge said the map likely violated the Voting Rights Act.

But when the GOP-controlled legislature created a second majority-Black district, a group of self-described non-Black voters sued, arguing a “racial quota” cost the state a Republican seat in a narrowly divided Congress.

The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, debated the issue last term. But instead of issuing a decision, the justices took the rare step of calling for a second round of oral arguments that more squarely put the future of the redistricting protections in jeopardy.

Supreme Court previously gutted a different section of the VRA

That provision became more important after the court in 2013 struck down a different part of the Voting Rights Act − one used to monitor states with a history of discrimination. The court said the restriction was “based on decades-old data and eradicated practices.”

The civil rights groups defending the law argue the requirement to create districts that give racial minorities a reasonable chance to elect their preferred candidate already takes into account current conditions.

There must be a majority group large enough and compact enough to make up a district, and White residents have to vote together cohesively enough to defeat a minority group’s candidate. Those conditions can change over time.

But the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund say they still exist in Louisiana where the Voting Rights Act is “the only reason that Black voters have any electoral vote.”

Potential political implications

If the Supreme Court sides with Louisiana – and does so while states still have enough time to react before next year’s elections − that could supercharge the unusual mid-decade redistricting Republicans have spearheaded before the 2026 mid-terms.

Democratic voting rights group estimate that gutting the Voting Rights Act’s protections against vote dilution could help Republicans win an additional 27 House seats − including 19 that would directly result from invalidating the law’s protections.

A decision in the consolidated cases of Louisiana v. Callais and Robinson v. Callais is expected by the end of June.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court asks if Black voter protections discriminate against White people

Reporting by Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect