Supreme Court ruling upends Louisiana’s congressional map #shorts

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]The 1965 Voting Rights Act was created to protect minority voting power. In Louisiana, which has one of the highest percentages of black residents in the country, about 30%, there has never been a black politician elected to Congress in a district where whites are in the majority. The recent Supreme Court ruling virtually gutted the landmark legislation, but some say its time has passed.

[00:00:26]There are conservative African-Americans who've spoken out in recent days and they have praised this court's ruling uh and they say that there's proof of real racial progress.

[00:00:37]>> Oh, there is progress in the nation, you know, but but but there is not progress in the southern part of our country to the extent that you should do away with the voting rights act. You you tell those same folk to come here and run for office and get elected.

[00:00:56]>> The sixth district stretches more than 200 miles from Baton Rouge to Shreveport. During oral arguments, Chief Justice John Roberts called it quote, "A snake that runs from one side of the state angling up to the other, picking up black populations as it goes along."

[00:01:15]The case was brought by a group describing themselves as non-affrican-american voters. They sued Louisiana under the 14th amendment's equal protection clause, which says the government must treat everyone equally under the law. In its ruling, the court called the sixth district map an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.