The ruling that could change American democracy may arrive with barely a whisper. In a single opinion, the Supreme Court could keep Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act on paper while draining it of real power.
What is unfolding in Louisiana v. Callais is less an open assault than a slow unravelling. By inviting arguments that let states defend maps as “just politics,” even when race and party are inseparable, the Court is testing how far it can pull back federal oversight without saying it has abandoned it. Section 2 may survive in name, yet function more as a symbol than a shield, invoked in briefs but rarely capable of forcing new districts into existence.
The consequences will not be abstract. Maps will be redrawn, challenged, upheld. Communities that briefly gained a second voice in Congress may see it erased in the next cycle. A handful of seats could decide who controls the House, who chairs committees, which investigations are launched or buried. For voters of color, the message will be unmistakable: the fight over representation is shifting from the courtroom back to state capitols, where power is hardest to dislodge and where the line between strategy and exclusion is easiest to deny.