On April 29, 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Louisiana v. Callais. The vote ran 6–3. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion. Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson dissented.
Justice Kagan read her dissent aloud from the bench. She has served on the Supreme Court for sixteen years. Justices do not routinely read dissents from the bench. When they do, it means something. She ended without the customary word “respectfully.” She wrote simply: “I dissent.”
She called the majority’s ruling “the latest chapter in the now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act.”
That is where we are.
Louisiana v. Callais
To understand Callais, we need about five minutes of background:
Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in direct response to the systematic exclusion of Black Americans from the democratic process. Section 2 serves as the law’s nationwide enforcement arm. It prohibits voting practices, including the drawing of district maps, that result in the denial or abridge…
