President Lyndon Johnson hands a pen to civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the signing of the Voting Rights Act in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 6, 1965.
Hulton Archive, Washington Bureau/Getty Images

In a major ruling that would permit weakening the voting power of minorities in the United States, the Supreme Court on April 29, 2026, struck down a Black-majority district in Louisiana’s congressional map as “an unconstitutional gerrymander” and altered the court’s interpretation of the Voting Rights Act.

In a 6-3 decision, the court’s conservative majority argued that Louisiana had violated the law by drawing a second Black-majority district. Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the court was upholding a key part of the Voting Rights Act known as Section 2, which prohibits “voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership in one of the language minority groups identified” in the act.

Originally published on theconversation.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.