Louisiana Pushes Back Against Race-Based Gerrymandering

Louisiana’s litigation over its congressional map has taken a significant turn, and it’s a welcome one. The state is no longer defending race-based gerrymandering, even when imposed in the name of the Voting Rights Act. Instead, Louisiana is affirming a principle at the core of the Constitution: government must be colorblind.

For too long, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has been stretched beyond its purpose, morphing from a shield against discrimination into a tool to demand proportional racial outcomes. Courts have compelled legislatures to prioritize race above geography, communities of interest, or political considerations. That is not equality—it’s a new form of racial sorting.

Louisiana is right to resist this. Equal protection means exactly that: protection for all voters, without racial preferences or quotas. Remedial gerrymandering, even if framed as “benign,” still entrenches race as the dominant factor in elections and risks penalizing other groups of voters.

This is not about abandoning civil rights or minority protections. Louisiana remains bound by prohibitions against discrimination. But it refuses to concede that race should dictate district lines. By making this pivot, the state is reclaiming its constitutional role in redistricting, ensuring maps are drawn with neutral principles rather than racial arithmetic.

The stakes go well beyond Louisiana. A Supreme Court ruling in the state’s favor would reaffirm the Constitution’s colorblind promise, rein in judicial micromanagement of maps, and remind Congress that statutes like the Voting Rights Act cannot override the higher law of equal protection.

Louisiana’s position is bold and principled. At a time when courts are rethinking race-conscious decisionmaking, the state has chosen the right side of history—the side of fairness, neutrality, and genuine equality under the law.