Five States Are Eliminating Black Districts. Louisiana Just Approved the Map That Started It.

Eight Days

Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District covered Memphis and had sent a Black representative to Congress for over 50 years. On May 7, 2026, the state legislature carved it into three pieces, diluting Black voting power across three white-majority districts. The NAACP filed suit within hours.

That speed tells you what the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision actually did. The ruling came down April 29. Tennessee moved eight days later.

No hearings on community impact. No public comment period that mattered. Just a vote and a district gone.

What the Court Changed

On April 29, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act no longer covers maps that produce discriminatory outcomes. Writing for the majority, Justice Alito held that plaintiffs must now prove intentional discrimination. Not just that the result dilutes minority voting power, but that the people who drew the lines did so because of race.

That standard is functionally impossible to meet. Legislators do not write “we did this to reduce Black representation” into the legislative record. They cite compactness or partisan advantage. The intent standard lets them do whatever they want as long as they do not say why.

Justice Kagan dissented from the bench. She read portions of her opinion aloud and dropped the customary “respectfully,” a deliberate signal.

“The majority’s rule renders Section 2 all but a dead letter.”

— Justice Elena Kagan, dissenting

States Moving Now

Five states have moved in four weeks. A sixth is watching.

State	What happened	Status
Tennessee	Eliminated its only Black-majority district (9th CD, Memphis split into 3)	New map signed into law. NAACP lawsuit filed.
Louisiana	Legislature approved a new map on May 29 keeping only 1 Black-majority district out of 6. The state that started the Callais case now has the map the ruling was designed to protect.	Map approved. GOP positioned to flip a Democratic seat before November.
Mississippi	Legislature moving to redraw its congressional map following Louisiana’s lead	In progress.
Alabama	Court-ordered map vacated during active elections	Legislature expected to redraw. Candidates already filing under the old map.
Georgia	Special legislative session called for June 17 to redraw maps	Black-majority districts in Atlanta metro at risk.
North Carolina	Watching Georgia’s outcome before moving	Legislature has signaled interest in revisiting maps.

The Pattern

Every state in the table has a Republican-controlled legislature. Every district at risk is majority-Black. The ruling gave them legal cover, and the fastest movers proved how little friction remains.

Before Callais, a state that drew a map diluting minority voting power could be challenged on the results alone. A plaintiff could show that the map cracked or packed a minority community, and a court could order a new one.

That tool is gone. The only claims that survive are ones where someone can prove what was in a legislator’s head when they voted.

The speed tells the story. Tennessee moved in 8 days. Louisiana approved its map in 30.

Mississippi is next. One month from ruling to cascade across the Deep South.

What You Can Do

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore the effects test and add federal preclearance for states with a track record of discriminatory maps. It has been introduced in every Congress since 2019. It has never received a Senate floor vote.

Tell your senators to pass the John Lewis VRA. The Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore the effects test that Callais eliminated. Send the letter through Resistbot. This is the only legislative fix.
Follow the lawsuits. The NAACP challenge to Tennessee’s map will be the first test of whether any path remains under the new intent standard. If it fails, there is no federal remedy for racially discriminatory maps drawn carefully enough.
Watch Georgia on June 17. The special legislative session will determine whether the cascade reaches the state with the most Black-majority districts at risk. Public pressure before June 17 is the window.
Contact your state legislators if you live in a state with a Republican trifecta. Louisiana and Tennessee moved within weeks. Your state may be next.

This brief is part of our Civil Rights and Racial Justice coverage and the Election 2026 series. For state-specific updates, see Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Updates

Update, May 31: Louisiana’s legislature approved a new congressional map on May 29 that keeps only one Black-majority district out of six. The state that started the Callais case now has exactly the map the ruling was designed to protect.

The old map, ordered by a federal court in 2024 under Section 2, had created a second Black-majority district. That map is gone. Republicans are positioned to flip one of Louisiana’s two Democratic-held House seats before November.

Rep. Kyle Green told colleagues the legislature was “forgetting a quantity of history that I don’t believe any of us has the right to forget.”

Mississippi is now moving to redraw its own map. Five states have redrawn or begun redrawing maps in four weeks. Georgia’s special session on June 17 is the next flashpoint.