The Supreme Court’s ‘Colorblindness’ Would Gut the Voting Rights Act

If the oral arguments are any indication, the Supreme Court may be about to achieve a remarkably bizarre outcome: using the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to overturn a key provision of the Voting Rights Act — a law explicitly designed to achieve racial equality in voting.

If that is indeed what the court does, it would be one of the most blatantly activist decisions of modern times, overturning a landmark civil rights law passed by Congress and upheld repeatedly by the courts. Analysts suggest the result could allow states to redraw districts in ways that immediately shift control of up to 12 congressional seats. The Supreme Court would be intervening in electoral politics in a way that is sure to erode further its already diminishing legitimacy — and make it appear overtly partisan in the process. Even if one believes the Supreme Court would be constitutionally correct in turning antidiscrimination law on its head, the timing couldn’t be worse for either the court or the country.