If you wish to help ConservativeHQ reach more readers then donate here.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard a Louisiana case that could determine if racial gerrymandering is finally declared unconstitutional and given an appropriate burial.
The case, Louisiana v. Callais, involves a Congressional map that was drawn in 2024 to create a second majority-Black district in the state. It snakes across the state for 250 miles, ignoring common sense, and is at times barely contiguous. (See main image above for map.)
As our friend Steve Moore observed in a recent edition of his Committee to Unleash Prosperity Hotline, “If the court finds against the tortured lines of the district on the grounds that it impermissibly allows the use of race in policy decisions, it could have a profound impact in the drawing of Congressional district lines.”
In 2021, in Allen v. Milligan, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the court's three liberals in ruling not to strike down lines drawn along racial lines.
But now, both sounded much more skeptical, noted Mr. Moore, to listen to the oral argument go here.
SCOTUS Blog reported Chief Justice John Roberts, the author of the court’s opinion in Milligan, appeared to suggest that the Milligan case should not necessarily dictate the outcome of the Louisiana case. “That case,” Roberts said, “took the existing precedent as a given.” And, he continued, “it was a case in which we were considering Alabama’s particular challenge based on … what turned out to be an improper evidentiary showing.”
Justice Elena Kagan countered that Alabama had “made several arguments that we specifically rejected” in Milligan. “And in the answers that you just gave to me,” she told Aguiñaga, “it seems to me that you repeated each and every one of those arguments that we rejected.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who joined the majority in Milligan, raised a point that he had made in a concurring opinion in that case. “[T]his Court’s cases in a variety of contexts have said that race-based remedies are permissible for a period of time, sometimes for a long period of time, decades in some cases, but … they should not be indefinite and should have a[n] end point.”
SCOTUS Blog reported Kavanaugh also appeared somewhat receptive to the Trump administration’s argument, made by Principal Deputy Solicitor General Hashim Mooppan, that the constitutional problem before the court “is not the mere consideration of race in districting. The problem is when race subordinates traditional neutral principles and is the factor that cannot be compromised.” The Trump administration, while not jettisoning Section 2, would make it more difficult to bring a Section 2 claim: in its view, a violation of Section 2 cannot rest on a lack of equal opportunity for minority plaintiffs to participate in the political process when “politics, rather than race, is the likely reason for the State’s refusal to create a majority-minority district.”
Mooppan further argued that “there are roughly 60 Black representatives” in Congress right now, but “only 15 majority-Black districts.” “[N]one of these positions” advanced by the Trump administration or the other litigants opposing the 2024 map, he said, “is going to lead to there being no Black representation in Congress or anything remotely approaching that.”
It’s been 60 years since the Voting Rights Act was passed. Today, there are 15 black members of Congress representing districts that are majority white. Today, it is the government, not voters who are obsessed with skin color, concluded Steve Moore.
It’s time to end racial districting even though the foolish strategy of packing all the minorities into one or two districts often costs the Left seats in Congress, said Steve Moore, and we agree.
George Rasley is editor of Richard Viguerie's ConservativeHQ.com and is a veteran of over 300 political campaigns. A member of American MENSA, he served on the staff of Vice President Dan Quayle, as Director of Policy and Communication for former Congressman Adam Putnam (FL-12) then Vice Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, and as spokesman for retired Rep. Mac Thornberry formerly a member of the House Intelligence Committee and Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
- Supreme Court
- racial gerrymandering
- Louisiana v. Callais
- majority black district
- Democrat Party
- district lines
- redistricting
- Chief Justice John Roberts
- Justice Brett Kavanaugh
- Trump administration
- Deputy Solicitor General Hashim Mooppan
- Majority Minority Districts
- Voting Rights Act
Wanna help us reach more readers?
Since 1999, ConservativeHQ has been providing for free news and information for conservative leaders and activists intended to help grow the conservative movement so large that conservatives will govern America.
If you enjoy our content and wish to help finance the success and growth of ConservativeHQ, then I urge you to donate here, or mail a contribution to: ConservativeHQ, 9625 Surveyor Court, Ste 400, Manassas, VA 20110. Your contribution is not tax deductible, but greatly appreciated!
