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.