The New York Times | May 2, 2026
By Nikolas Bowie and Daphna Renan
“With its decision this week in Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court gutted a core part of the Voting Rights Act, Congress’s landmark prohibition on voting rules that have the effect of excluding people of color from the political process. And it has effectively killed the Second Reconstruction, the mid-20th-century civil rights revolution.”
“When the Supreme Court challenged the first Reconstruction 150 years ago, abolitionists and Republicans in Congress debated measures ranging from declaring certain federal laws beyond judicial reach to changing the number of justices. The partial measures they enacted saved Reconstruction — for a time.”
“Members of an ascendant Republican Party decried a court ‘inflated with supremacy’ and declared that whenever a decision is, ‘in the judgment of Congress, subversive of the rights and liberties of the people,’ it is the ‘solemn duty of Congress’ to override it.”
“In Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, the Roberts court dismantled the Voting Rights Act’s preclearance mechanism. This week’s ruling finishes the job. If Congress does not respond, we know how this story will end.”