Louisiana v. Callais: What’s At Stake for Voting Rights and Democracy

Louisiana v. Callais: What’s At Stake for Voting Rights and Democracy

Louisiana v. Callais is about whether the law can still be used to stop politicians from entrenching power by weakening the votes of communities of color, or whether those protections will be stripped away entirely.

What’s Happening 

For as long as the United States has existed, voting rights have been a promise we’ve failed to live up to, especially for communities of color. From property requirements and poll taxes to literacy tests, racial terror, and modern voter suppression laws; access to the ballot has always been something powerful interests try to restrict, and something marginalized communities have had to continually fight for. Louisiana v. Callais is the latest chapter in that long fight.

The issue is whether Louisiana’s court-ordered creation of a second majority-Black congressional district, drawn to fix a proven violation of the Voting Rights Act, is unconstitutional because it considered race.

A federal court found that Louisiana’s original congressional map illegally diluted Black voting power and ordered the state to remedy that violation by drawing a second district where Black voters could fairly elect a candidate of their choice. That kind of remedy has been standard under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), the core safeguard against racially discriminatory redistricting.

Now, the Supreme Court is being asked to decide something far more sweeping: whether considering race to correct proven racial discrimination in political maps can itself be treated as discriminatory under the Constitution. If the Court sides with Callais, Section 2 of the VRA could be effectively dismantled. 

This means the VRA, the very tool designed to enforce the 14th and 15th Amendments — passed to protect Black political participation after slavery — would be twisted into a weapon against the communities those amendments were meant to protect. In practice, that would mean states could racially discriminate in redrawing maps, and courts would be barred from effectively remedying the harm.

In simple terms, Louisiana v. Callais is about whether the law can still be used to stop politicians from entrenching power by weakening the votes of communities of color, or whether those protections will be stripped away entirely.

Why This Matters 

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is one of the most transformative civil rights statutes Congress has ever passed, and it’s one of the few remaining tools we have to defend against political power grabs in how voting districts are drawn. 

Before the Voting Rights Act, disenfranchisement was systematic and often enforced through violence. In Mississippi, fewer than 7% of Black residents were registered to vote in 1965. Within just two years of the Act’s passage, that number rose to nearly 60%. That transformation happened because the law finally gave real enforcement power to constitutional promises, after Black Americans fought relentlessly — and at enormous personal risk — to make those promises mean something.

Section 2 works by prohibiting voting practices that result in racial discrimination, including redistricting maps that weaken the ability of voters of color to elect candidates of their choice. Courts have used it to stop both Jim Crow–era tactics and their modern effects, including poll taxes, literacy tests, white primaries, and explicit racial exclusions, as well as later redistricting practices that dilute Black political power, such as:

  • Splitting Black neighborhoods across multiple districts to dilute their power
  • Packing Black voters into a single district surrounded by overwhelmingly white districts
  • Drawing lines so precise that neighbors across the street are placed in different congressional districts

If Section 2 is gutted, those tactics return, fully legalized. And it wouldn’t just impact Louisiana. 

This case comes amid an aggressive surge in voter suppression nationwide. Over the past decade, Republican legislatures have passed wave after wave of laws designed to make voting harder, especially for Black, Latino, Indigenous, young, and low-income voters. These efforts are part of a long-term strategy to hollow out voting rights piece by piece.

Now, Trump’s goons from every level of government are exploiting the openings created by a captured judiciary. The Supreme Court has already implicitly approved partisan gerrymandering as a green light, removing one of the last checks on political map manipulation. If racial protections are stripped away as well, legislatures would be left free to redraw maps with virtually no meaningful federal constraints, turning elections into exercises in power entrenchment rather than democratic choice.

GOP lawmakers in states like Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina have already signaled they will immediately redraw maps if Section 2 falls, setting off a mid-decade wave of aggressive map rigging.

Combined with aggressive GOP mid-decade redistricting, a ruling that undermines Section 2 could:

  • Lock in up to 19 additional safe Republican seats in the U.S. House
  • Enable Republican legislatures, especially across the South, to eliminate roughly 191 Democratic-held state legislative seats, many currently held by Black lawmakers
  • Trigger aggressive redistricting at every level of government, from Congress to city councils and school boards

Decades of organizing, coalition-building, and hard-won representation could be erased overnight. And the damage wouldn’t stop with voting. Weakening the VRA opens the door to broader attacks on civil rights protections, accelerating erosion across housing, employment, education, and beyond.

Do We Just Give Up?

No – we will never give up the fight for an inclusive democracy. The MAGA majority on the Supreme Court may want to declare open season on our voting rights, but they don’t get the last word. The next steps will play out in state legislatures, in city council meetings, in election commissions, and more. The people rigging our democracy want us to accept defeat and quietly slink away. But if we organize, lock arms with our allies on the front lines of defending voting rights, and fight back – then we will get the last word. 

How Do We Fight Back?

  1. Stay Informed. One of the most powerful tools we have is education. Confusion is their strategy. These attacks on voting rights rely on people not understanding what’s happening, how the courts work, or what’s being taken away until it’s too late. Stay informed and be ready to take action based on how your elected officials act as a result of this ruling. Seek out opportunities to help others understand how cases like Louisiana v. Callais affect political power is essential to resisting voter suppression. An informed public is far harder to disenfranchise.
  2. Organize. Courts didn’t give us voting rights; groups of people — organizing together to make sure their voices could be heard — are what have expanded voting rights. Regardless of what the Supreme Court decides, we still have work to do. Here are a few things you can do:
    • Engage with voters in your community year-round to ensure they are informed, engaged, and using their power at the polls.
    • Join or follow along with local and state-based voting rights organizations in your area. They will be the most plugged in with the concerns and opportunities near you. As an Indivisible group, ensure you are part of local voting rights coalitions.
    • Be ready to show up in person when we need to bring attention to this issue — we anticipate a need for rallies, honking & waving, office visits, and more.

Additional Resources

Learn more about Louisiana vs. Callais and the impact the decision could have on fair maps and Black and Brown communities.