The Supreme Court's six conservative justices dealt another major blow to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ruling that the landmark civil rights law has become a victim of its own success. In a Louisiana redistricting case, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that "vast social change has occurred throughout the country and particularly in the South," arguing the law is no longer needed. The court ruled that Louisiana lawmakers violated the Constitution by creating a majority-Black district.

This marks the third ruling over 13 years that has collectively gutted the act. The court previously eviscerated the law in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) and gave states latitude to impose voting restrictions in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee (2021). A study published in The Journal of Politics found the racial turnout gap widened by 9 percentage points in covered jurisdictions after Shelby County, translating to hundreds of thousands of uncast ballots by voters of color.

Justice Elena Kagan dissented, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, arguing that Congress should decide when to roll back protections, not the court. "It is for the people's representatives in Congress to decide when the nation need no longer worry about the dilution of minority voting strength," she wrote. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall praised the ruling, saying the state would immediately apply it to Alabama's redistricting efforts.