Supreme Court Smothers Voting Rights Act, Hands GOP a Massive Win

The Supreme Court just threw out Louisiana’s redrawn congressional map in a huge blow to the Voting Rights Act, an essential pillar of the Civil Rights Movement.

In a 6–3 decision along ideological lines, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Louisiana’s redrawn congressional map, which was redrawn with considerations of race thanks to a group of Black voters who had challenged the state’s original version, was unconstitutional.

“Because the Voting Rights Act did not require Louisiana to create an additional majority-minority district, no compelling interest justified the State’s use of race in creating SB8, and that map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander,” the court wrote in its decision for Louisiana v. Callais.

Justice Samuel Alito delivered the majority decision, joined by the five other conservative justices, while Justice Elena Kagan filed her dissent, joined by the other two liberal justices.

Following the 2020 census, Louisiana’s state legislature drew a new voting map, which produced one majority Black district. A group of Black voters sued, arguing that the map had violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race. A federal district court sided with the voters, and the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the decision, ordering the state to draw a new map. A new map was created that had two congressional districts that were majority Black.

But then, a group of voters who described themselves as “non-African-American” challenged the new congressional map, arguing that because it had been drawn to consider race, it was unconstitutional gerrymandering, in violation of the equal protections clause of the U.S. Constitution. While a panel of federal judges initially blocked Louisiana from using the new map, the Supreme Court paused that decision, allowing the state to temporarily use it.

The Supreme Court’s decision will not only affect election results in conservative-led Louisiana for years to come, but it has severely undermined the ability of voters to challenge discrimination under the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits “discrimination against the minority group, such as unusually large election districts,” according to a 1982 report from the the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

This story has been updated.

Republicans are realizing most Americans don’t like President Trump using the Justice Department to persecute those he believes have personally wronged him.

In the midst of a contentious midterm cycle, some on the right have politely suggested the man in the Oval Office focus on the issues that got him elected. But Trump isn’t one to take advice from others. On Tuesday, his administration announced it was filing charges against former FBI Director James Comey and an aide of longtime White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci.

With an unpopular Middle East war, deportations continuing to frighten residents, a poor job market, and high gas prices, Trump’s personal revenge tour is unsurprisingly unpopular. In a March CNN survey, two-thirds of Americans said the president hasn’t paid enough attention to the most important issues facing the country, a sharp increase from the 52 percent CNN reported a year prior.

“No Republican wants to run on ‘I stand with Donald Trump’s retribution tour,’” Barrett Marson, a conservative strategist, told The Washington Post.

Another GOP consultant, longtime Trump critic Whit Ayres, went even further. “[It’s] exactly the opposite of what most Americans would like to see the president and the Department of Justice focused on,” Ayres told the Post. “They’re worried about inflation and the economy, and many of them are worried about how the war in Iran will end.”

Even some Senate Republicans have pushed back against Trump’s allocation of resources. North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, expressed skepticism that the DOJ’s case against Comey held water. The case is built on a photo Comey posted on Instagram last year, in which seashells on a beach are arranged to write out “86 47.” While “86” is a term originally used in the restaurant industry to get rid of or cancel a dish, the DOJ is arguing this constitutes a threat to Trump’s life.

“I’ve used ‘86’ a lot of times,” Tillis told the Post. “I’ve never said it with the intent of killing somebody.”

Tillis also said he would rather see U.S. Attorney W. Ellis Boyle prosecute “drug [and] human traffickers” than go after Comey. “I want to make sure Mr. Boyle, when he gets confirmed, is focusing on that sort of stuff,” he said. “Somebody’s going to have to convince me that this rises to the level of that kind of bad.”

In the latest forecasts, Democrats are heavily favored to reclaim a House majority in November, though redistricting could throw a wrench in that. They have about a 50 percent chance to take the Senate, as well. Republicans need every policy win they can get from the White House, but an ailing Trump isn’t giving them much to work with.

The number of President Donald Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters is dwindling, according to a recent poll.

Only 18 percent of Americans strongly approve of Trump’s job performance, down from 34 percent at the start of his second term, according to an Economist/YouGov poll published Tuesday.

The polls found that just 37 percent of Americans strongly or somewhat approved of Trump’s job handling, while a whopping 59 percent disapproved, matching Trump’s disapproval rating from the beginning of March, which was his highest ever during his second term. Trump’s net approval rating was -22 points, just above the previous low of -23 points at the end of March.

It’s not all that surprising that Trump is falling out of favor as his so-called “Golden Age” falls apart at the seams.

The president’s handling of the economy has left Americans with a historically poor view of the economy. A Gallup poll published Tuesday found that 55 percent of Americans said their finances were getting worse, up 53 percent from the year before and 47 percent from the year before that. While Americans are worried about paying their bills, Trump’s most urgent desire is to construct a gaudy ballroom adjacent to the White House—now using taxpayer dollars.

Gallup found that Americans are also the most concerned about energy prices that they’ve been since 2008, as Trump’s reckless war with Iran has brought global energy trade to a screeching halt. Trump’s extended military campaign in Iran has also proven to be a sticking point for Americans, increasingly so as it nears the 60-day mark.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, President Trump posted a wild threat to Iran on his Truth Social page.

“Iran can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon! President DJT,” the post read, accompanied by a picture of Trump wearing a dark suit and tie, holding a military rifle and standing in front of several explosions on a hill with the text “NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!🇺🇲” at the top.

What this means for negotiations or the ceasefire is anyone’s guess, but U.S. intelligence agencies are exploring how Iran would react if the president declared unilateral victory in the two-month war, Reuters reports. Senior administration officials have reportedly asked for the assessment, trying to figure out if it could help the president and his fellow Republicans in the midterms.

Polls indicate that the war is highly unpopular and could contribute to heavy losses in Congress for the GOP. No decision has been made on the “unilateral victory,” according to Reuters, but intelligence reports indicate Iran would consider it a win with no guarantee that it would help Trump and the GOP politically.

Is Trump attempting to look tough with this post, hoping to scare Iran into a deal that makes him look good, or is it a warning that he plans to escalate the conflict? In either case, Trump has backed himself into a corner with no good solutions.

Publicly, Donald Trump has promised a quick and resolute end to the war with Iran—but talk of the conflict is entirely different inside his inner circle.

The president has told his aides to prepare for an “extended” blockade of Iran and the Strait of Hormuz as negotiations with Tehran drag on, according to U.S. officials that spoke with The Wall Street Journal Tuesday.

That language has permeated recent meetings, including a Monday discussion in the Situation Room, reported the Journal. Officials said that Trump assessed his other options—which include reinstigating violence or walking away from the conflict altogether—and decided that continuing to squeeze the country’s economy was the best choice.

His decision has been reflected in his recent social media posts, emphasizing the White House’s intent to prolong the war unless Iran signs away its nuclear program.

“Iran can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in the early hours of Wednesday morning, sharing an AI-generated image of himself wearing a tuxedo and sunglasses with a semiautomatic gun in his hands as a landscape, presumed to be Iran, explodes in the background.

In another post attacking German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump claimed that he was “doing something with Iran, right now, that other Nations, or Presidents, should have done long ago.”

Trump reportedly intends to amp up pressure on Iran until its leadership caves to his key demand: ending its nuclear capabilities. But the reality of Iran’s nuclear progress is still murky.

Prior to the war—which never obtained congressional approval—Trump ordered strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear sites, hitting Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan on June 22. At the time, the Trump administration claimed that the one-off air raid had set Iran’s program back by “years.”

Joe Kent, then director of the National Counterterrorism Center, sparked a maelstrom in Washington when he resigned over the issue last month. Kent argued in his resignation letter that he could not “in good conscience” support the war in Iran. “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” he wrote at the time.

In the eight weeks since the war began, the U.S. and Israel have killed thousands of Iranian civilians and obliterated Iranian civilian infrastructure. Thirteen U.S. soldiers have also died in the process.

Meanwhile, the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has caused a global energy crisis, choking off a critical tradeway for the Middle Eastern oil trade. In the U.S., lagging oil and gas deliveries have caused transportation costs to surge, affecting virtually every commodity on the market. At the time of publication, the average cost for a gallon of gas was above $4.22, according to a AAA analysis. In some areas of California, such as San Francisco, Napa, and San Jose, gas was well above $6 per gallon.