WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 29, 2026) — A group of historians who filed an amicus brief in a Louisiana voting rights case strongly condemned a U.S. Supreme Court decision today that all but guts Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which will strip Black and Brown voters across the South of a critical tool to fight discriminatory maps diluting their political power.
The decision, split 6-3, upheld a lower court decision finding Louisiana’s remedial congressional map — redrawn to give Black voters a meaningful chance to elect their preferred candidate in at least two districts — as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander that violates the Fourteenth Amendment. In doing so, the court ruled that minority voters must take into account the political goals of the state’s map drawers in proving a violation. Because partisan and racial polarization in many areas of the country overlap, this ruling greatly diminishes the ability of minority voters to get meaningful relief.
The amicus brief — submitted in Callais v. Louisiana by counsel from Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) on behalf of Dr. John Bardes and Dr. Heather A. O’Connell of Louisiana State University and Dr. R. Blakeslee Gilpin of Tulane University — examined the evidence of persistent and systemic racial discrimination in Louisiana from past to present, showing an ongoing history that makes robust enforcement of the VRA essential. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson cited the brief directly during oral argument in the case.
Read the Louisiana historians’ amicus brief here.
“What is particularly disheartening and frankly, shocking, is the majority’s obvious disinterest if not hostility to American history,” said Gilpin, one of the historians who is part of the amicus. “The decision’s clear agenda in sunsetting legislation that has proven the most reliable defense against racial and voting discrimination for more than six decades should horrify all patriotic citizens.”
The case centers on Louisiana’s congressional redistricting map, which created a second majority-Black congressional district following the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Allen v. Milligan. A lower court struck down the new Louisiana map as a racial gerrymander, and today’s opinion upholding that decision will leave Black voters, who make up one in three Louisianans, without fair representation.
“This is a devastating but entirely predictable outcome,” said O’Connell, another one of the historians. “Power protects itself — history has shown us that over and over again. The people in charge don’t give up their advantage without a fight, and today the court handed them another way to hold on to it. It’s heartbreaking, but not surprising to anyone paying attention to this moment.”
The ruling also reshapes redistricting nationwide, and in the South in particular, it means Black and Brown voters may lose their ability to elect leaders of their choice both in local and statewide races.
“This opinion is nothing less than a full-scale retreat from fair representation for Black voters in Louisiana and across the South,” said Chris Shenton, Senior Counsel for Voting Rights at SCSJ. “The Voting Rights Act was designed to prevent exactly this — maps drawn to silence Black communities and concentrate power in the hands of those who wish to exclude them.”
The amicus brief documented how Louisiana’s Black population continues to face systemic inequities in education, housing, health, and political participation.
SCSJ calls on Congress to act swiftly to restore the VRA to its full strength and protect the rights of Black, Latino, Indigenous, and Asian American voters to participate equally in our democracy.
Voting rights attorneys at SCSJ are available for interviews about the Callais decision.
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Southern Coalition for Social Justice, founded in 2007, partners with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities in the South to defend and advance their political, social, and economic rights through the combination of legal advocacy, research, organizing, and communications. Learn more at southerncoalition.org and follow our work on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.