The problem lies not with the statute but with Thornburg v. Gingles’s (1986) framework for vote dilution.
“Justices Question Election Maps’ Use of Race” (Page One, Oct. 16) suggests that the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais could weaken the Voting Rights Act. The problem lies not with the statute but with Thornburg v. Gingles’s (1986) framework for vote dilution.
Congress’s 1982 amendment to VRA Section 2 permits claims based on voting practices that are “not equally open” to racial minorities. But it expressly disavows any right for minority groups to receive representation proportional to their share of the population. In its interpretation of the amendment, Gingles produced an unsteady balancing act: States must consider race enough to give racial minorities a reasonable opportunity to “elect representatives of their choice,” yet not so much as to violate the Equal Protection Clause.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the Wall Street Journal (paywall)
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John Ketcham is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Legal Defense Fund