NRF Responds to SCOTUS Imperiling the Voting Rights Act

For Immediate Release
August 1, 2025
Contact
Madia Coleman
coleman@redistrictingfoundation.org

Washington, D.C. – Today, John Bisognano, President of the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF), issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s announcement that it will take up the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in Louisiana v. Callais:

“Since the enactment of the Voting Rights Act nearly 60 years ago, a court has never once concluded that there is a conflict between the U.S. Constitution and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. This very Supreme Court reached that same conclusion just two years ago, when it upheld Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in Allen v. Milligan. To comply with that law, Louisiana must have a congressional map that includes two Black opportunity districts. 

“If the Court decides to now undo that precedent, it would be a head-spinning reversal of itself. It would also be abundantly clear to the American people — who are increasingly outraged by the targeted discriminatory voting practices underway in Texas and other states — that the Supreme Court’s majority is completely untethered to the reality that everyday Americans live day to day.” 

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

The congressional map passed into law by the state of Louisiana in 2022 allowed Black voters to elect a candidate of their choice in just one of six congressional districts, despite the fact that Black voters made up a third of the state’s population. In response, the NRF initiated Galmon v. Ardoin, consolidated with Robinson v. Ardoin, a lawsuit that challenged Louisiana’s gerrymandered congressional map for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965. That litigation was ultimately successful in requiring the state of Louisiana to enact a new map that includes two Black opportunity districts, in compliance with Section 2. 

Immediately after enactment of this new map, a separate lawsuit—the Callais case—was filed, and a lower federal court struck down Louisiana’s VRA-compliant map. Following that decision, the NRF-supported voters from the Galmon case, alongside the Robinson group, filed an emergency stay request to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Court granted that request. This kept Louisiana’s VRA-compliant map in place for the 2024 election, which allowed Louisianans to elect two Black Members of Congress to represent their state simultaneously for the first time in almost three decades. 

The National Redistricting Foundation filed an amicus brief to the Court on behalf of the Galmon Amici in support of Louisiana’s VRA-compliant map. In March 2025, oral argument in Louisiana v. Callais was held before the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the Court announced that the case would be re-argued at some point during its next term, which starts in October 2025. In the meantime, a stay remains in place, which ensures that Louisiana’s Voting Rights Act-compliant map remains in place at least until a conclusion is reached in this case.

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