Justice Kagan Says Louisiana V. Callais Leaves Section 2 Weaker
In louisiana v. callais, the Supreme Court’s decision is described as hollowing out Section 2 protections for local governments. Justice Kagan dissented and said Section 2 was “all but a dead letter,” a line that captures the stakes for school boards, city councils, and county commissions where the law has been used most often.
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act outlaws state and local governments from enacting voting rules that result in racial discrimination. The decision is described as cutting away at that protection for local governments, where Section 2 has most frequently been applied to challenge local electoral practices and where minority communities have used it to win representation.
David Tyson Jr. and Richardson ISD
The effect is easier to see in the 2018 lawsuit filed by David Tyson Jr. against Richardson Independent School District in Texas. Tyson said the district had a “tale of two districts,” and the record he challenged described a system where, in the district’s 164-year history, he was the only person of color ever to serve on the school board.
At the time of that suit, white students made up less than 30 percent of the district while Black and Hispanic students made up nearly 60 percent. White voters still comprised a majority of the district’s population, though, and Tyson argued the board stayed persistently white because of the district’s voting practices.
School board map and demographics
The numbers Tyson pointed to were not abstract. He said elementary schools where at least 70 percent of students met grade level in two or more subjects were two-thirds white and mostly not economically disadvantaged. The lowest-performing elementary schools were predominantly Black, Latino, and economically disadvantaged.
The gap between the district’s highest-performing school and its lowest-performing school was 60 points. The highest-performing school was predominantly white, and the lowest-performing school was predominantly Latino. Those facts show why local election rules have been the main battlefield for Section 2 disputes: the law has been used where school boards and other local bodies translate voting access into day-to-day representation.
Justice Kagan’s dissent
Justice Kagan’s dissent in Louisiana v. Callais drew the sharpest line in the case. By calling Section 2 “all but a dead letter,” she framed the ruling as one that leaves local governments with fewer limits on voting practices that have been challenged under the law for years.
For readers in school districts, cities, and counties, the practical change is not abstract. Section 2 is the tool Tyson used in Richardson, and the Court’s decision is described as narrowing the protection that made that kind of lawsuit possible against local election systems.
