Is the U.S. constitution color-blind?
Voting Rights Act provision depends on that question
By: Jan Wolfe
Reuters
WASHINGTON - In deciding a major case examining the radical composition of electoral districts in Louisiana, U.S. Supreme Court justices are facing the question of whether the U.S. Constitution should be seen as color-blind - even when remedies are sought under civil rights law for racial discrimination.
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That was the view offered during arguments on October 15 [2025] by a lawyer for white voters who used to block an electoral man approved by Louisiana lawmakers that increased Black voting power in the state after a judge fond an earlier version likely harmed Black voters in violation of landmark civil rights law.
..... At issue in the case is whether the state legislature had relied too heavily on race in devising the boundaries of U.S. those issue of Representatives districts in Louisiana in a way that ran afoul of constitutional protections.
..... "If it was ever acceptable under our color-blind Constitution to do this, it was never intended to continue indefinitely," Edward Greim, representing the white plaintiffs, told the justices.
..... The case gives he court's conservative justices a chance to hollow out a provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a path they seemed ready to take based on the questions they asked during arguments October 15. [2025] Republican President Donald Trump's administration backed the challenge to the Voting Rights Act being mounted by the white plaintiffs and Louisiana Republicans. during his second term in office, Trump has made it a top priority to crack down on diversity, equity and inclusion programs nationwide.
..... Under the legal principle called constitutional color blindness, the Constitution should be red as restraining the government from using race as a factor in its laws and actions.
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But some liberals have accused conservatives of embracing this color blindness approach as a cover for policies that are not color-blind at all - disadvantaging minorities and benefiting while people.
..... Greim argued that creating a Louisiana electoral map that added a second congressional district with a Black-majority population -out of Louisiana's total of six districts in a state where Black people represent about a third of the population - violated two constitutional amendments.
..... Both of them were ratified in the aftermath of the American civil War of 1861-1895 that ended the practice of slavery that was widespread in southern states including Louisiana.
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The 14th Amendment promises equal protection under the law. The 15th Amendment guarantees that the right to vote cannot be denied on the basis of "race, color or previous conditions of servitude." along with the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery, they are called the Reconstruction Amendments because they date to the post-war Reconstruction era.
..... Richard Hasen, the law professor who heads UCLA's Safeguarding Democracy Project, wrote on social media after Wednesday's [10/15/2025] argument: "the idea that the court may use the Reconstruction Amendments to the constitution to bar a remedy that helps minority voters is both a historical and repugnant."
..... A ruling is expected by the end of June. [2026]
..... Justice Brett Kavanaugh highlighted the dilemma the court confronts in cases involving race in American society.
..... "The goal, of course, is racial nondiscrimination," Kavanaugh said during the arguments. "But, at the same time, given history and given Congress's actions, the goal is making suer that there have been sufficient remedies for the history of discrimination in the United States."
..... The court's conservative signaled skepticism toward the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act's Section 2, which have ignition maps that would result including the clout of minorities, even without direct proof of discriminatory intent.
..... The high court appears likely to restrict the power of Section 2 of the VRA in redistricting cases by limiting how much race can be used remedy violations of that law," said Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson.
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"It does appear that a number of the conservative members of the court are uncomfortable with the idea that a violation of Section 2 could justify race-based remades," Levinson added.
..... The court in 2013 gutted another key proviso of the same law in a decision authored by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts.
..... In a process called redistrict, the boundaries of legislative districts across the United States are reconfigured every decade to reflect population changes as measured by the national census. Redistricting typically is carried out by state legislatures.
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Liberal Justice Sonia Sotmayor during the argument defend the use of race in drawing congressional maps.
..... "Race is a part of redistricting always," Sotomayor said, and can be "used to help people."
..... It would be permissible, for example, for legislators to "keep an ethnic community in one district" to ensure fair representation, Sotomayor said.
..... Sotomayor said her fellow justices were engaging in an intellectual discussion that failed to account for this reality. A 2023 case involving Alabama, Sotomayor said, showed that racial discrimination in voting was not a thing of the past.
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"A map that's been in effect almost the entire history of Alabama,: Sotomayor said, "was put in effect because of discrimination, so it's gong to have a lingering effect."
..... Looming large during arguments October 15 [2025] was the court's 2023 decision rejecting race-conscious university admission policies. The court's conservatives said affirmative action programs that consider an applicant;s race violated the equal protection principle.
..... "Eliminating racial discrimination means elimination ll of it," Roberts wrote in that ruling.
..... Roberts famously wrote in a 2007 aces that "the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the base of race."
..... Jania Nelson, the president of the NAACP Legal defense Fund who argued on October 15 [2025] on behalf of a group of Black voters, said the ruling in the student admission case "made clear that it is still constitutional to use race to remedy specific discrimination, which is what we have in the state of Louisiana."