Overview
- The Court, in an unsigned shadow‑docket order, let Alabama use a congressional map that packs most Black voters into one district despite a 2025 three‑judge panel’s finding of intentional racial gerrymandering.
- In Louisiana v. Callais, the justices said only intentional racial discrimination can support a Voting Rights Act claim under Section 2, replacing the long‑used test focused on discriminatory results.
- Critics say the Court rushed its final judgment in Callais and skipped the usual 32‑day rehearing window, a move they argue invited states to quickly lock in new maps.
- Election‑law scholar Richard Hasen warns the rulings will encourage maximal partisan redistricting that is expected to favor Republicans at this stage and could affect control of the House.
- The shift contrasts with Chief Justice John Roberts’s 2023 opinion that found Alabama’s earlier map diluted Black votes, and the recent pace has prompted some former skeptics, including Hasen, to back Supreme Court reform.