SCOTUS to hear arguments over whether Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional

Louisiana has seen a legal battle play out over its congressional map, which currently includes two House districts in which a majority of residents are African American.

The Supreme Court generated political shockwaves last week when it moved to hear arguments over the matter. 

Briefs to be submitted later this month

According to CBS News, America’s highest judicial body announced this past Friday that it wants briefs later this month regarding whether the congressional map is unconstitutional.

CBS News pointed out that this will be the second time such arguments are put forward, as they were previously presented in June.

As UCLA School of Law professor Rick Hasen explained in a post on his blog, the case arose after a lower court rejected Louisiana’s earlier map, which featured only one majority African American district.

That fact was found to represent a dilution of African American votes and thus violated Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA).

Challengers say Section 2 of the VRA is unconstitutional

Yet the new map is now being challenged by a group of non-African American plaintiffs who maintain that Section 2 of the VRA is itself unconstitutional.

They contend that taking race into account when drawing electoral boundaries is a violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

#ELB: Breaking: Supreme Court, in Order Asking for Additional Briefing in Louisiana Voting Case, Appears to Put the Constitutionality of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act into Question https://t.co/ccjrLpxuuk

— Election Law Blog (@ElectionLawBlog) August 1, 2025

“Louisiana had to create that second majority-minority district in order to comply with the Voting Rights Act, as it had been found to face Section 2 VRA liability for not creating that district,” Hasen wrote.

Law professor: “The stakes here are enormous”

“What the Court seems to be asking, without directly saying it, is whether Section 2 of the VRA, at least as to how it has been applied to require the creation of majority-minority districts in some circumstances, violates a colorblind understanding of the Constitution,” he continued.

Hasen asserted that “the stakes here are enormous” before adding, “I was worried the Court would put the VRA’s constitutionality into question when there was this great delay in the Court ordering supplemental briefing.”

Meanwhile, Politico observed that a three-judge panel ruled in 2024 that Louisiana’s new map amounted to “an impermissible racial gerrymander in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

“This challenge reflects the tension between Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause,” the judges admitted.

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