Hansi Luong
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
It's not clear when the Supreme Court will issue its decision in a closely watched redistricting case out of Louisiana.
But after the justices held a rare second hearing for the case in October, some court watchers say the court's conservative majority may soon issue a ruling that weakens the Voting Rights Act's protections against voting districts that dilute the power of racial minorities.
That could lead to Republican-led states, particularly in the South, undoing districts where Black voters have a realistic opportunity of liking their preferred candidates, who are usually Democrats.
But congressional maps for next year's midterms have to be finalized before a state's filing deadline for candidates running in the primary.
And those deadlines are coming up in December for Mississippi, in January for Alabama, and in February for Louisiana.
A final decision from the Supreme Court may come as soon as Monday.
If the court allows Texas to use the contested map for the midterm election, Republicans may be able to pick up five more seats in the U.S.
A lower court had blocked that map after finding its challengers are likely to prove in a trial that the map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
That's because multiple top Republican officials made public statements suggesting they passed it to eliminate existing districts where Black and Latino voters together make up the majority.
But Texas tells the Supreme Court the lawmakers were not motivated by race and were focused on drawing new districts that are more likely to elect Republicans.
Time is running out to finalize Texas' map for the midterms.
The state's candidate filing deadline is about two weeks away.
Nine states have passed state voting rights acts and advocates are pushing for more as critics of the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 keep chipping away at that landmark law in court.
New York's Voting Rights Act has survived for now after the state's highest court ruled that the town of Newburgh, New York, does not have the legal capacity to claim that the state law violates the U.S.
The town is facing a lawsuit claiming that its system of electing candidates as at-large representatives of one district dilutes the collective power of Black and Hispanic voters.
The New York ruling comes as voting rights advocates around the country are keeping watch for a U.S.