Politics
States Continue Redistricting Rush in the Wake of Supreme Court Decision
The redistricting battle that began in Texas last year continues to have ripple effects across the nation.
Just this week, a redistricting effort in South Carolina stalled out, while a map in Alabama faces a legal challenge. And earlier this year, several Republican state lawmakers in Indiana crossed party lines to oppose a new map in that state.
But lawmakers in Florida, Tennessee and six other states have successfully adopted new congressional maps since the last election.
Some of these efforts have been made easier after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais that weakened key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Conner Kozisek, program counsel at the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, and John Mark Hansen, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, joined “Chicago Tonight” to break down the current state of redistricting around the country.
What did the Supreme Court find in Louisiana v. Callais?
Kozisek: This was a decision that eviscerated Section 2 of the Federal Voting Rights Act, which is often referred to as the crown jewel of the Civil Rights Movement. The Federal VRA protects against vote dilution, which is unfair districts that prevent communities of color from electing the candidates of their choice. And in Louisiana v. Callais the U.S. Supreme Court said that state or local governments creating maps can assert that they did not intentionally racially discriminate in making those maps, and instead can use partisan goals. Even if there’s a racially discriminatory consequence in creating those maps.
Are there other examples of mid-decade redistricting?
Hansen: There were several states in the 1960s which had to redistrict their congressional delegations because of the Voting Rights Act … The one that touched off a lot of the competitive, partisan redistricting was a mid-decade redistricting in Texas in the 2000s… The Republicans did very well in 2002 in the midterm elections in the state legislature, and so (House Majority Whip Tom) DeLay saw an opportunity to change a map that had been drawn by Democrats after the 2000 census, and to turn it into a much more effective map for the Republicans.
Can Illinois, or other states, do anything on their own to uphold the provisions of the Voting Rights Act?
Kozisek: Many states have enacted state equivalents (of the Voting Rights Act) that secure or strengthen the protections under the Federal VRA… The Illinois Voting Rights Act of 2026, Senate Bill 3170, seeks to secure those protections for voters in Illinois against voter suppression, vote dilution, those unfair districts, and also expanding voter access for voters whose first language isn’t English.
Could redistricting backfire for either party?
Hansen: I think yes, and probably more likely for the Republicans than the Democrats. The problem with (President Trump’s plan) was that it proceeded on the assumption that all of the votes he won in 2024 in places like Texas would stay Republican, which is a completely crazy idea because the circumstances have changed, he’s an incumbent president now.
