The U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Louisiana v. Callais on April 29, 2026. The case concerned Louisiana’s congressional map and the use of race in creating a second majority-minority district. It was not a ruling upholding a law called the Voting Rights Modernisation Act of 2025. Supreme Court opinion
The Court held that the district at issue was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and concluded that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act did not require its creation under the circumstances addressed in the opinion. The decision examined the relationship between the statute and constitutional limits on race-based districting.
The opinion also addressed the framework courts use to evaluate Section 2 claims. These are legal conclusions in a particular dispute, not a simple announcement that every existing congressional district was approved or invalidated. Readers should consult the majority opinion and separate opinions for the reasoning and points of disagreement.
Congressional Research Service analysis provides another account of the decision and its legal context. A sound summary identifies the actual statute and case, rather than replacing a complex judgment with an unsupported claim about a newly enacted modernization law. CRS analysis
Archive note: the earlier law and ruling description was not supported by the cited opinion.