The logic of the racist Supreme Court isn’t adding up

Close watchers of the Supreme Court knew that the conservative supermajority was about to murder what was left of the Voting Rights Act . Wednesday’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais took down Section 2 of the law, clearing the way for racist gerrymandering, because it is now racist to remedy racism . The decision is an affront to the history of the Voting Rights Act, an affront to the history of the United States, and an affront to math. The state of Louisiana, which is around 30 percent Black, has six districts. The voting districts are drawn so that there are two majority-Black districts. That is two out of six districts; approximately 33 percent of the districts, you might say. Because SCOTUS has ruled this map unconstitutional, the state of Louisiana will almost certainly redraw the maps so there is only one majority-Black district. So a statewide population of 30 percent will now have their voting preferences reflected in 17 percent of the state’s districts. Theoretically, voting is more subtle than race. Many different things at municipal, state, and federal levels appear on any given ballot; no racial minority is a monolith, and a community will reflect a rich variety of social and political views. …