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BREAKING: United States Supreme Court issues historic Voting Rights Act decision
BREAKING NEWS: The United States Supreme Court has issued a historic decision related to the Voting Rights Act and sided with Attorney General Murrill's Office in Louisiana v. Callais.
A 6-3 court ruled that Louisiana's map creating a second majority-Black district, which federal courts forced Louisiana to draw, is unconstitutional.
"We win in Louisiana v. Callais! The Supreme Court has ended Louisiana’s long-running nightmare of federal courts coercing the state to draw a racially discriminatory map. That was always unconstitutional—and this is a seismic decision reaffirming equal protection under our nation’s laws. I vigorously defended our first map and said then that the only way to draw a second majority-minority district was to expressly take race into account. We raised our objections at that time to racial gerrymandering, but the district court and the Fifth Circuit directed us to draw the map anyway. It is gratifying that the Supreme Court has finally vindicated our original position and, in doing so, clarified that only under very narrow circumstances—where there is proof of intentional discrimination—may race be used as a remedy under Section 2. It is frustrating that this has taken five years, millions of dollars, and many lost hours to get here. I will continue to work with the Governor and the Legislature to provide guidance as we move forward to adopt a constitutionally compliant map," said Attorney General Murrill.
Read the opinion here.