What Democrats Can Do to Restore Voting Rights Post-Callais |
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Louisiana v. Callais, much attention has been paid to its impact on the midterms and the partisan gerrymandering surge we can expect in the last two years of the Trump administration. The decision clearly green-lights map-rigging by demolishing the legal obstacles posed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Thus it’s a huge gift to the Republicans who control the former Confederate states, where the VRA previously protected minority (and thus Democratic) voting interests to a considerable degree. The decision probably won’t be enough to let the GOP hang on to control of the U.S. House in November, but it could make the post-election landscape in Congress a lot friendlier to Republicans.
So in the long term, is there anything Democrats can do to mitigate the damage from Callais, aside from attempting retaliatory gerrymanders of their own in blue states? What’s possible at the national level if Democrats flip control of Congress in the next four years and win back the presidency in 2028? Would a Democratic trifecta in Washington in 2029 make it possible to undo Callais by enacting new voting-rights legislation?
If this question sounds familiar, it’s probably because unsuccessful efforts to shore up voting rights were a big deal when Democrats last had trifecta control of the federal government in 2021 (before losing the House in........