Melissa Murray

Most states are not dumb.

Most state officials aren't dumb.

They're going to figure out how to do this without making it look intentional, and they're going to keep doing it.

And that's really the danger of this case.

We're going to see

More and more districts being drawn in ways that disadvantage minority voters and voters of color.

We are going to see more and more states try to consolidate partisan advantage.

Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee reportedly said that this decision leaves the state legislature of Tennessee free to make Tennessee a red state in perpetuity.

All of this is unbelievably anti-democratic, but it's also deeply, deeply anti-multiracial democratic, right?

Like this is how you kill a multiracial democracy.

Well, I think part of how they did this was that they created a new question to be asked.

So the case, Louisiana versus Calais, was actually first taken up in October term 2024.

There was oral argument.

The court was expected to issue a decision by June 2025.

In June of 2025, it said, wait a minute, we're going to hold this case over till the next term.

They ordered another set of oral arguments.

And then they instructed the litigants to answer a new question that the litigants didn't even ask.

So this is a question the court was supplying.

And the question was whether the use of race in the context of remedying this racial gerrymander violated the 14th and 15th amendments.

Nobody asked them to brief that.