The Supreme Court heard arguments in the Louisiana congressional map case, which could have significant implications for the Voting Rights Act. Anthony Salvanto explains how the outcome could also affect the balance of power in Congress.

Louisiana

The Supreme Court has heard arguments in a case concerning Louisiana's congressional map, which was redrawn to include a second majority-Black district. This case is significant due to its potential impact on the interpretation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting and districting.

Experts note that if Section 2 is weakened or overturned, several majority-minority districts across the southern United States could revert to Republican control, making it more difficult for Democrats to gain a majority in Congress. The outcome of this case could therefore have broad implications for future congressional elections and the representation of minority voters.

Louisiana redistricting case could shift power balance in Congress

The Supreme Court heard arguments today in a case that could have, very honestly, significant implications for the Voting Rights Act. At the center of it, Louisiana's congressional map, which was redrawn in 2024 and added a second majority black district. Joining me now, your friend and mine, it's been a while, CBS News Executive Director of Elections and Surveys, Anthony Salvato. Anthony, you have the maps, you have the knowledge, take it away. How you doing, my friend? Okay, so here is a map of congressional districts in the US, and you see all the twisted, squiggly kind of lines. We're going to come to that in a minute, but first, Major, we are going to explain how this impacts because the VRA, Section 2, has been interpreted to mean that you cannot discriminate against somebody based on race in voting, and as that pertains to drawing districts, you cannot do a couple of things, and I'm going to show you this sort of hypothetical example. We are going to do districting live here on The Takeout, Major. I'm not going to call it Takeout Majoring, but here we go. Now, I could take these red and blue figures, and I could draw a district around them that's about balanced between red and blue, but by and large, states, politicians, they don't do that, right? So what they do is they start drawing districts, and what you can't do under the VRA is you can't pack all of one type of voter, all into one particular district, and therefore dilute their voting power elsewhere in the state, or you can't, here's another example, you can't take these voters and put them into districts so that they are wildly outnumbered or diluted in the districts where they land, okay? So those are two examples of things that affect how districts and district lines get drawn. I'm going to come back to the map, and I'm going to show you, particularly here down around the South, where Democrats do hold districts, these blue areas, generally speaking, they are majority-minority districts. Minority voters tend to vote Democrat. Democrats hold these districts. If the VRA Section 2 goes away, Major, then we estimate maybe six to maybe as many as 12 of these districts could go back to the Republicans, which makes it way harder for the Democrats to take Congress next year, way easier for the Republicans to hold it. I told you that Anthony had the maps and the knowledge. He has both. That makes me, as always, deeply grateful. Anthony Salvato. Thank you so much.

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