Supreme Court ruling limiting Voting Rights Act condemned by NC Democrats, lauded by Republicans ...Middle East

The U.S. Supreme Court on April 9, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

North Carolina Democrats mourned Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling severely limiting the protections of the Voting Rights Act, while Republicans celebrated it as a much-needed constraint on judicial overreach.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais Wednesday morning significantly curtailed the Voting Rights Act, essentially limiting the landmark civil rights law to only prohibit maps drawn with the explicit intent of racially discriminating against voters.

The majority held that Section 2 of the act, which prohibits states from using maps that dilute minority groups’ voting power, requires plaintiffs be able to “disentangle” race from lawmakers’ race-neutral considerations so that a “strong inference” may be drawn that race was a factor.

In other words, it is not enough for a successful challenge to show that congressional maps have a racially discriminatory impact on voters — as long as lawmakers claim they drew the districts to maximize partisan gain, it is presumed to be legal unless there’s clear evidence they intended to discriminate on racial grounds.

US Supreme Court limits use of race in congressional district remaps, diluting Voting Rights Act

In practice, Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent, that renders Section 2 “all but a dead letter,” imperiling districts that give minority citizens a “meaningful political voice,” particularly across the South.

“If other States follow Louisiana’s lead, the minority citizens residing there will no longer have an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. And minority representation in government institutions will sharply decline,” Kagan wrote.

Voting rights groups Fair Fight Action and the Black Voters Matter Fund projected that the ruling could allow Republican legislatures to redraw 19 districts that were protected by the Voting Rights Act with the goal of flipping them to the GOP.

In North Carolina, the ruling means voters will have little recourse to challenge the state’s new mid-decade redistricting map, which Republican lawmakers drew in 2025 seeking to flip the seat held by Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.) in the 1st Congressional District, encompassing much of the state’s historic Black Belt.

The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request for an injunction against the map last November, finding no evidence of “discriminatory intent” by lawmakers. Advocates declined to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, stalling the challenge — in part because the Roberts Court has for years signaled that it favors a limited reading of the Voting Rights Act, rendering any appeal unlikely to succeed.

North Carolina Democrats characterized the decision as a shameful violation of the Constitution’s promise of equal representation.

Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.) called on Congress to “restore and strengthen” the Voting Rights Act in a statement Wednesday afternoon. She called the ruling “a deeply troubling step backward for American democracy and for the hard-won protections of the Voting Rights Act,” invoking Black organizers who “fought, bled, and organized” to ensure their votes counted.

“By narrowing the scope of Section 2, the Supreme Court has severely weakened one of the last meaningful safeguards against racially discriminatory gerrymandering, stripping away critical protections that prevent states from drawing unfair maps that dilute the voting power of communities of color,” she said.

Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) condemned the ruling as a “devastating blow to voting rights in this country” shortly after the decision’s release. “Today, the Supreme Court has effectively given Republican legislatures the green light to dilute the power of voters of color and eviscerate fair representation,” she said in a statement.

Speaking to reporters after the House session Wednesday afternoon, House Speaker Destin Hall said he does not anticipate any impact on North Carolina’s redistricting efforts from the ruling.

“It really was no longer a legal issue in North Carolina, so I don’t think it impacts anything that we’ve done,” he said. “I don’t anticipate us drawing any more maps this session.”

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, called the decision “a victory for the Constitution and the principle that every American citizen is equal under the law.”

“The Supreme Court made clear that our elections should be decided by voters, not engineered through unconstitutional mandates,” Hudson said in a statement. “For too long, activists have manipulated the redistricting process to achieve political outcomes, dividing Americans instead of bringing them together.”

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