The United States Supreme Court has voided a key provision of a landmark civil rights law by ruling that the electoral map of Louisiana had been drawn up unconstitutionally to create two Black-majority districts.The decision represents a major reinterpretation of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 – in particular, its provision designed to protect minority voters from having their political power diluted.It is unclear how much of that provision – Section 2 of the act – remains in force.Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling is seen as a major win for Louisiana Republicans and President Donald Trump’s administration and is expected to make it harder for minorities to challenge electoral maps as racially discriminatory under the 1965 law.Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry told Republican candidates for the House of Representatives on Wednesday that he planned to suspend next month’s primary elections to allow state lawmakers time to approve a new congressional map, The Washington Post reported, quoting two people with knowledge of the calls.The latest ruling comes during a wider battle over congressional redistricting before midterm elections in November.What has the Supreme Court ruled?The court held that a map that created two Black-majority congressional districts in Louisiana was unconstitutional. The 6-3 ruling by justices blocks an electoral map that had given Louisiana a second Black-majority US congressional district.The court’s conservative majority found that the Louisiana district represented by Democrat Cleo Fields relied too heavily on race. Advertisement Chief Justice John Roberts described the …
