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Let’s be honest about what’s happening.
In 2022, Louisiana’s Republican-majority legislature didn’t enter the constitutionally-mandated redistricting session with a plan to govern fairly. They came in with a plan to seal their power for as long as possible, by any means necessary. Martin Luther King Jr’s landmark achievement, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 likely wasn’t their main target at first. It was simply the law that stood in the way of the political machine they were building. And once it became a threat to that machine, they set out to dismantle it.
From the beginning, the GOP strategy wasn’t to follow the rules. It was to delay, to stall, and to force the courts to catch up. Every year of delay meant one more year of uncontested power. When civil rights lawyers, community leaders, and Black legislators pointed out that the newly drawn congressional and legislative districts violated the law, Republican legislators didn’t deny it. They said the quiet part out loud: “Let the courts decide.”
That was the setup. That was the plan. And for more than three years, it worked.
Three and a half years later, we’re still living under maps that robbed Black voters and Democrats of fair representation. Maps that were rigged to lock in one-party rule, already ruled illegal by federal courts. And instead of fixing them when they had the chance, the Louisiana GOP made their next move: sacrifice the battle to win the war.
After being ordered to create a second majority-Black congressional district, they redrew the map, but with flaws built in by design. They ignored more compact, legally sound proposals offered by Black legislators and civil rights groups. Instead, they chose a version vulnerable to legal attack, just enough to trigger a lawsuit from Republican allies. And to make it even more politically convenient, they used that same map to eliminate their own internal rival, Congressman Garrett Graves.
It wasn’t about fair representation. It was about setting a trap.
And when the inevitable lawsuit reached the Supreme Court, Attorney General Liz Murrill sprang that trap. She switched sides. She withdrew the state’s defense. Then she told the Court that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the very part that protects against racial vote dilution, is unconstitutional.
Her argument? That drawing districts to ensure minority voters have a fair chance is itself racial discrimination, because it “sorts voters by race.” And she made that argument using the 14th Amendment, the same amendment written to protect formerly enslaved Americans after the Civil War. She’s twisting the Constitution’s promise of equality to destroy the strongest civil rights protection we have left.
It’s the most cynical legal maneuver we’ve seen since the days of Jim Crow. And if the Supreme Court agrees, the consequences will be devastating, not just in Louisiana, but across the country.
Civil rights advocates warn this case could wipe out half of the Congressional Black Caucus. It could gut minority representation in legislatures across the South. It could destroy the law that finally gave Black voters real power in this country, and hand one political party the tools to entrench itself permanently.
Let’s be clear: no one sees race more clearly than the Louisiana GOP.
They see it when they split Black neighborhoods across multiple districts.
They see it when they draw lines to dilute Black voting power and protect white GOP incumbents.
They see it when they use racial dog-whistles and fear to divide working-class voters.
They’ve always seen race clearly, as the basis of their power. And they’ve weaponized it for decades. Not to govern, but to divide and rule. Now that the law has caught up with them, they’re pretending to be the ones under attack.
This isn’t just about fairness. This is about power, and protecting it at all costs.
And it’s not new. Louisiana has a long history of doing this. After the Civil War, during Reconstruction, the state elected dozens of Black legislators, even a Black lieutenant governor and acting governor. But once white supremacist power returned, it was all ripped away. For 90 years, Black political power in Louisiana was nearly erased. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was meant to correct that. And while progress has been slow and imperfect, it worked.
Now that Black voters have begun rebuilding real influence, the GOP is trying to take it all back. Not with poll taxes this time, but with lawsuits and perverted legal theory. The costumes have changed. The play is the same.
And let’s not pretend this is only about race-neutral law. The racial polarization of politics in Louisiana is no accident. Almost all Black voters in the state vote Democrat, and the Republican Party has done nothing to change that. Instead of trying to earn those votes, they’ve chosen to silence them. They’ve drawn maps not just to maintain power, but to shut out the political party that Black voters overwhelmingly support, a party that has consistently fought to protect their rights.
So when Black voters are denied fair representation, the entire citizenry suffers, not just politically but morally. Because the fight for Black voting power isn’t just about party. It’s about the long, unfinished work of justice, human rights and economic prosperity in this state.
And no, Democrats aren’t perfect. We’ve made our share of mistakes. But one thing has remained constant: we fight for the right of every person to have a voice, a vote, and a fair shot.
Louisiana will never heal, never grow, and never rise until we stop letting political power hide behind race to divide us, then blame others for pointing it out.
They want you to believe that protecting Black voters is the problem. That laws like the Voting Rights Act are what’s dividing us. But that’s the oldest con in politics: use race to gain power, then turn around and blame the people fighting back for “making it about race.”
Here’s the truth: naming injustice doesn’t divide us — it’s how we start to fix what’s broken. The real division comes from those who built their power on inequality, and now claim to be “colorblind” the moment anyone challenges it.
You can’t steal seats for years, get caught, and then argue that no one’s stealing anymore so we should get rid of the law that says you can’t steal.
This isn’t a legal argument. It’s a setup. It’s a power grab. And it’s time we call it what it is.
-Dustin Granger
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