Of the many civil rights-related cases brought before the U.S. Supreme Court this year, Louisiana v. Callais has the potential to completely disenfranchise Black and brown voters right before the 2026 midterms. It’s an effort birthed from MAGA Republicans and President Donald Trump’s ongoing redistricting movement. And this time, all Americans– regardless of race– need to be tuned in.
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Stacey Abrams, an author, politician and founder of Fair Fight Action to end voter suppression in Georgia, emphasized just how vital this Supreme Court case is to our democracy. “This decision could undo decades of hard-won progress on civil rights for our communities and the consequences are clear,” she told The Root. “Hundreds of seats erased millions of voices silenced and virtually no democratic path to reverse the authoritarian path our country is on.”
Louisiana v. Callais specifically focuses on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which is “the central safeguard against racially discriminatory redistricting,” according to a recent study from Fair Fight Action and the Black Voters Matter Fund, a voting rights and Black empowerment organization. Their report illustrated grave consequences if the high court guts the historic section, including the potential to set Black folks back all the way to the dark days after Reconstruction (1863 to 1877).
But while Black and brown communities are more at risk of being underrepresented, co-founder and executive director of Black Voters Matter Cliff Albright explained to The Root that this isn’t a Black issue. Instead, he says this decision will have grave impact on the entire country.
“Anytime there’s an attack against Black communities, guess what? The entire country suffers,” he told us. “All the things that have started in this country– and you can go back to 1619 if you want– anything that starts in this country rooted in anti-Blackness eventually affects the entire country.”
Anti-Black policies like attacks on welfare, mass incarceration and even immigration often have trickle-down effects on other communities, including negative economic and social results. The 2025 rehearing of Louisiana v. Callais explicitly targets Black voting districts in the state. The Black Voters Matter report estimated 191 state Democrat legislative seats are at risk, and a majority of those seats are held by Black representatives in majority-minority districts.
On the flip side, Albright added that policies advancing the Black community also advance others. “Anything that has ever benefited us, including the 14th Amendment itself, has also benefited the entire country,” the co-founder added. Albright cited the 14th Amendment, 15th Amendment, Civil Rights Act of 1965 and Affirmative Action– all of which also led to non-Black people becoming the main beneficiaries of.
“Nobody benefits– except maybe for a small handful of oligarchs– but the vast majority of the country does not benefit from an authoritarian type of government,” he continued. “That’s exactly what’s created if you allow for voting rights to be decimated, for them to not have to respond to voters and to not even have to worry about doing any types of policies that actually benefit people’s lives, because they will have installed basically one party rule for decades.”
Despite the court’s decision being out of the hands of everyday Americans, Albright said part of the responsibly also falls on local communities to speak out against the targeted attacks on minority voters.
He explained, “There’s a range of things that people can do from protesting to organizing ballot initiatives to voting to just helping the spread the word,” pointing to Missouri voters who organized en masse to protest the Trump-backed redistricting effort. According to the Missouri Independent, over 300,000 Missourians submitted a petition to force a public vote on gerrymandering.
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