Will the Supreme Court Use a Louisiana Case to Gut the Voting Rights Act?

In a landmark 2013 case, the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that had required some states with a history of discrimination to seek approval from the federal government before changing their voting laws.

In that case, Shelby County v. Holder, the justices split along ideological lines in a decision that showed they differed on how much progress the country had made in race relations since the law was adopted as a crowning achievement of the civil rights movement.

“Our country has changed,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in the court’s opinion, “and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions.”

The court’s decision left untouched a central piece of the Voting Rights Act known as Section 2, which prohibits election or voting practices that discriminate on the basis of race. In the Shelby County opinion, the chief justice wrote: “Section 2 is permanent, applies nationwide, and is not at issue in this case.”

A little more than a decade later, Section 2 is now squarely at issue. On Wednesday, the court will consider a challenge focused on this remaining pillar of the Voting Rights Act, the key legislation that aimed to unravel Jim Crow laws in the South and that has served to protect the voting power of Black Americans.

Just how far the court is willing to go may become more clear as the justices hear Louisiana v. Callais, a complex dispute over the state’s congressional map.