Rollback of Voting Rights Act beckons states across the South to redraw congressional districts

Key conservative voices urged Republican-led states in the South on Wednesday to take the Supreme Court’s invitation to redraw their legislative maps to delete Democratic-leaning Black majority districts and replace them with seats that favor Republicans.

In a 6-3 ruling, the high court said the Voting Rights Act of 1965 can no longer be used to force states to carve out seats that give racial or ethnic minorities special consideration in their voting power when doing so conflicts with the states’ political desires.

The immediate effect was to give Louisiana, whose map was before the justices, the power to ditch its current congressional map, with a 4-2 Republican majority, and replace it with one that gives Republicans a 5-1 advantage.

The state was debating Wednesday whether that could happen in time for the November elections.

The decision also implicitly blesses the map already in effect in Texas and the map that the Florida Legislature approved Wednesday. The Texas and Florida maps were drawn to produce more Republican seats at the expense of districts drawn to maximize minorities’ power.

The ruling also puts pressure on other Republican-led states to see whether they can do the same.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican running for governor of Tennessee, called on her state’s legislature to ditch its current map, with a 7-2 Republican advantage, and go for one that would produce an 8-1 split by redrawing a seat in the Memphis area.

“It’s essential to cement President Trump’s agenda and the Golden Age of America,” she said.

Similar calls went up from Republicans in Alabama, where the current map gives the Republicans a 6-2 advantage but could be rewritten to make that 7-1 now that a court-ordered Black majority district is no longer required.

In South Carolina, Rep. Ralph Norman, a Republican seeking the state’s governorship, called for new lines to redraw a majority Black district held by a Democrat.

“What happened today is a turning point. It means states like ours can finally take a hard look at districts that were designed to be untouchable,” he said.

The biggest hurdle now is timing.

Some states have already held primaries, and others, such as Louisiana and Alabama, have primaries scheduled for next month.

Republican changes are likely to draw counterattacks by Democratic-led states, continuing a year of redraws.

Texas’ decision last year to draw a new map that likely would give the state five more Republican seats spurred California’s retaliatory map, which could net Democrats five seats.

Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have also redrawn their maps to benefit Republicans.

Virginia voters last week approved a redistricting amendment that, if it survives court challenges, could shift the state’s delegation from a 6-5 Democratic split toward a 10-1 Democratic split.

The pressure to sweat out every possible seat is compounded by the current narrow gap in the House, where Republicans hold a 217-212 majority, with one independent and five vacancies.

The Wednesday ruling would apply to state and local legislative seats too, freeing jurisdictions that had drawn racial gerrymanders to reconsider their maps.