Last month, the Supreme Court effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act through its ruling on Louisiana v. Callais. As a result of that ruling, several red states have already moved to implement redistricting efforts that would disenfranchise Black voters. Below are the states that are gleefully rebooting the Jim Crow South.
Alabama
It should come as no surprise that Alabama, a state whose maps have been so racist that they’re currently under a court order preventing them from drawing new ones, was quick to implement legislation that allows Gov. Kay Ivey to push back to the primary election should the court order be lifted. Considering that the court order largely stems from a violation of the Voting Rights Act, it’s unclear whether the Supreme Court’s ruling will affect it. If the order is lifted, Alabama state legislators have signaled they would eliminate a majority-Black district to pick up an extra House seat for Republicans.
According to the Hill, Alabama’s primary elections are held in just over a week, so the only way their redistricting effort comes into play is if the court lifts the injunction this week.
Louisiana
It should come as no surprise that the state that got us into this nightmare has postponed its primary elections from May 16 to July 15 to implement a new map favoring Republicans. Gov. Jeff Landry declared an emergency to justify the postponement, but that move has come under scrutiny.
“There are very real constitutional problems with stopping an election in progress,” Justin Levitt, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Law School, told the Hill. “In Louisiana in particular, the governor sort of declared an emergency, but only for some races on the ballot, which shows you that there isn’t an emergency, because if there were a real emergency, you wouldn’t stop the voting for just some of the races.”
Landry defended the postponement in an interview with 60 Minutes. “We’ve got the highest court in the land says the map that you have is unconstitutional, so we don’t have a map under which our voters can vote on,” Landry told the news magazine. Landry was dismissive of the fact that 45,000 people had already voted before he declared an emergency.
“Oh, those ballots are discarded and– and those voters will vote again in November,” Landry said. If anybody has a grievance, take it to the United States Supreme Court.”
South Carolina
State legislators in South Carolina have moved to extend the current legislative session to potentially conduct their own redistricting effort. While the state Senate is currently adjourned, it will consider the extension when it returns next week. AP notes that an extension would need to be approved by a two-thirds majority in the state Senate.
Should South Carolina trigger a redistricting effort, they would likely eliminate the state’s only majority-Black district, which is currently represented by Rep. James Clyburn. Clyburn was critical of the move to extend the legislative session in a series of posts on X.
“Republicans in the South Carolina state legislature began the process of extending their session to allow for the redrawing of the state’s congressional map — with one goal in mind: eliminating the state’s only Democratic House district that is occupied by a Democrat,” Clyburn wrote. “Republicans are trying to break apart South Carolina’s 6th District. Not because voters demanded it, but because Donald Trump requested it.”
Tennessee
Tennessee was the first state to implement a new congressional map in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling. Despite much protest, the Tennessee state legislature adopted a new congressional map that eliminated the state’s only majority-Black district. On paper, Republicans now look set to control all nine of the state’s House seats. Making things worse is that several state legislators were seen laughing at people protesting their disenfranchisement.
The fact that these ghouls have the power to disenfranchise an entire swath of their state’s population is yet another sign that U.S. institutions are buckling under the weight of autocracy.
With the Supreme Court’s ruling, we have now entered an era where politicians are no longer held accountable by their constituents. Polling shows that Trump and the GOP at large are underwater, but instead of actually doing anything that would benefit the American people, they’ve instead redrawn maps to their advantage. By all traditional metrics, this year’s midterms should be a layup for Democrats, but now Republicans have a strong chance of maintaining control of Congress despite implementing a deeply unpopular agenda. Instead of voters choosing their politicians, politicians are now choosing their voters.
Republican voters really diminished everybody’s voting power over egg prices and culture, getting a little too “woke.” Absolutely insane work.
SEE ALSO:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Announces Special Session For Redistricting
Supreme Court Officially Reinstates Texas’ Congressional Map
