Supreme Court, voting rights act
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Democrats and Republicans have set aside resources for the anticipated Florida redistricting battle ahead of the midterms.
In a dispute over a Louisiana voting map, the justices grappled with whether there should be a time limit on using race as a factor in carving up voting districts.
The Supreme Court seemed likely to limit race-based electoral districts under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act after hearing arguments by lawyers for Louisiana and the Trump administration.
After an impassioned set of arguments Wednesday over the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the question is whether Justice Brett Kavanaugh is willing to completely dismantle a law intended to ensure equal voting power for Blacks and other racial minorities.
The Supreme Court will convene on Wednesday to hear a legal battle over Louisiana's congressional map that could reverberate across the country.
While the 1965 law was adopted in response to discriminatory practices in southern states, it has affected states and localities nationwide.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued that the Voting Rights Act must sunset after an undetermined amount of time. Justice Amy Coney Barrett proposed imposing a limit on Congress’s power to remedy discrimination — one that the Court has applied in nonvoting cases — on election-related laws like the VRA.