The Supreme Court\u2019s decision to upend a key provision of the Voting Rights Act has plunged the nation into a dizzying new era of partisan conflict, most likely ushering in a forever redistricting war that could produce fewer competitive seats in Congress and further polarize American politics.<\/p>\n
Left as probable casualties are longstanding principles of fair representation \u2014 along with American voters, who are likelier now to be shunted into hyperpartisan districts drawn in each state to benefit the party in power. A great carving could effectively dilute the power of millions, especially minority voters, and make partisan primaries more important than general elections when it comes to choosing leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lost one of the last seatbelts of our democracy,\u201d said Alanah Odoms, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana.<\/p>\n
The ruling by the court\u2019s conservative majority struck down Louisiana\u2019s congressional map, describing it as an unconstitutional gerrymander that improperly considered race to create a majority-Black district. The ruling, Democrats argued, effectively removed one of the final guardrails that kept the most ruthlessly partisan interests at bay when it came to drawing congressional and legislative maps.<\/p>\n
Some also fear that the court\u2019s decision will reverberate beyond the halls of Congress.<\/p>\n
\u201cJudges, school board members, councilmen \u2014 doesn\u2019t matter, it will affect them all,\u201d Press Robinson, a Louisiana resident who pushed for more minority representation in the state\u2019s congressional maps, said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
More broadly, minority voters fear a backslide after losing what they say was a critical legal protection.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlack Americans have never been fully represented in the electoral process,\u201d said Damon Hewitt, the president of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a civil rights group. \u201cThis ruling makes it less likely that we ever will.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the court\u2019s majority opinion, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. cast the ruling as a limited one that preserved a central tenet of the Voting Rights Act while also addressing a separate matter of fairness \u2014 the equal protection clause of the Constitution, which he said Louisiana\u2019s majority-minority district violated.<\/p>\n
Congressional maps are supposed to be drawn once a decade to account for population shifts and ensure fair representation. But last year, President Trump started a rare, mid-decade gerrymandering arms race when he asked Texas officials to create a new map to benefit Republicans in what was widely anticipated to be a difficult midterm cycle for the party. California countered with a map favoring Democrats. Several other red and blue states followed.<\/p>\n
The court\u2019s decision on Wednesday has already prompted Louisiana and several other states to consider new maps in time for this year\u2019s midterms. Still others are considering a fresh round of redistricting ahead of 2028. Election lawyers in both parties are contemplating a host of legal challenges as officials try to understand the Supreme Court\u2019s new guidelines.<\/p>\n
A coldblooded consensus has emerged among Democrats and Republicans as both parties battle purely for power, casting aside longstanding principles of fair representation that previously informed the redistricting process. \u201cMaximum warfare, everywhere, all the time,\u201d Representative Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York and the House minority leader, said recently. He was echoing an adage first proffered by allies of Mr. Trump<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n Such aggressive gamesmanship in redistricting could run roughshod over longstanding norms for drawing maps, such as keeping communities of interest together, maintaining geographic compactness and protecting the voting power of minority voters.<\/p>\n A preview of this polarized future is already evident in the newly drawn districts in Florida and Virginia, where lopsided control of congressional seats will no longer reflect the partisan makeup of each state\u2019s electorate.<\/p>\n In Florida, Republicans could hold 24 of 28 congressional seats after they approved a new map this week that was drawn in anticipation of the Supreme Court\u2019s decision. The math is stark: In a state where Vice President Kamala Harris won 43 percent of the vote two years ago, the G.O.P. could control 86 percent of House seats.<\/p>\n Democratic state lawmakers mentioned that lopsided statistic often on Wednesday as they tried unsuccessfully to stop the new map.<\/p>\n \u201cYou think that this is just about preserving a Republican majority in the midterm,\u201d State Representative Fentrice Driskell of Tampa, the House minority leader, told her Republican colleagues. \u201cI stopped by to tell you today that you are destroying democracy with this vote.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet Democrats did something similar in Virginia last week, most likely giving their party 10 of the state\u2019s 11 Congressional seats, or 90 percent of the congressional delegation, in a state where Mr. Trump won 46 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n Republicans in the state seized on the disparity and how it would dilute the voting power of conservative voters. Jason Miyares, the former Republican state attorney general, accused Democrats of trying to silence \u201cmillions of conservative voices\u201d through \u201cdeceit\u201d and an \u201cunconstitutional power grab.\u201d<\/p>\n While such comparisons fail to take into account some factors that go into map drawing, such as how a party\u2019s voters are dispersed through a given area, the overall trend points to distorted representation in Congress. Some states are even discussing how to achieve single-party control in their House delegations.<\/p>\n Hours after the court\u2019s decision, Republicans across the South called for the elimination of majority-Black districts, all of which Democrats currently control. In Tennessee, Representative Diana Harshbarger, a Republican, said the state\u2019s last Democratic-held district, a majority-Black one in the Memphis area, was \u201ccreated to comply with a now-outdated interpretation\u201d of the Voting Rights Act. The decision \u201copens the door for Tennessee to draw a new map,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Since the ruling, Mr. Trump has encouraged state Republicans to move quickly to improve their political fortunes in the fall elections.<\/p>\n