The Black Caucus is the ‘conscience of Congress.’ Supreme Court ruling has it bracing for a big hit
Black members of Congress are bracing for a crippling upheaval in their ranks after a Supreme Court ruling gutted a key section of the Voting Rights Act that protected minority communities in redistricting and helped boost their representation.
Wednesday’s decision clears the way for Republican-led states to redraw U.S. House districts without regard to race, potentially creating many more seats favorable to the Republican Party.
Rep. Yvette Clarke, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, told reporters that her members and Democrats would fight the effects of the decision.
“The Supreme Court has opened the door to a coordinated attack on black voters across the country,” Clarke said. “This is a real power grab.”
Under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, voters could challenge voting maps that appeared to dilute the ability of minority communities to elect representatives of their choice. The expected wave of congressional redistricting by Republican-controlled states after Wednesday’s decision, particularly for the 2028 elections and beyond, is expected to result in a much smaller Black Caucus.
Clarke was joined by more than a dozen of the 60 members of the Black Caucus, including Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Their reactions to the court’s decision ranged from outrage to defiance to mourning.
It’s unclear how many seats will ultimately be affected by the decision, but redistricting experts predict that more than a dozen seats currently held by minorities could be eliminated.
Rep. Troy Carter, one of two black Democrats in Louisiana, the state at the center of the case, called the ruling “a devastating blow to our democracy, plain and simple.”
Republican leaders in several Southern states have already discussed how to implement the ruling and create new GOP-friendly congressional maps. In Florida, Republicans wasted no time approving a new U.S. House map, part of which redraws a district created to elect a black representative.
“I would be surprised if we don’t see former slave states move with lightning speed to target districts that give Black voters and other voters of color an equal opportunity to elect candidates,” said Kristen Clarke, general counsel of the NAACP and the first Black woman to serve as assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division.
It’s unclear whether state-level election laws or constitutional prohibitions against racial discrimination will provide any protection, she added.
Republican officials and black conservatives hailed the move as a victory against race-based mandates. Linda Lee Tarver of the Project 21 Black Leadership Network said in a statement that civil rights laws were not intended to “institutionalize racial distinction as the default feature of our political system.”
The Congressional Black Caucus was formed in 1971 following court-ordered redistricting under the Voting Rights Act, passed six years earlier, that sent more minorities to Congress.
The number of black representatives in Congress increased from nine to 13. Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, decided to expand the Special Committee on Democracy created in the 1960s by Democratic Representative Charles Diggs into the more formal Congressional Black Caucus.
The CBC increased its visibility in its first year by boycotting President Richard Nixon’s State of the Union address after Nixon refused to meet with the group. Nixon finally acquiesced. The group compiled a list of more than 60 recommendations to help the black community, including combating racism and building adequate housing. This earned him the nickname “conscience of Congress.”
“This caucus has had such an important voice in American politics — the things we’ve been able to achieve together, creating equity and access,” Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia said at another news conference Wednesday. “And I fear that with this decision, we could see this caucus shrink extremely significantly.”
The decision upset Thomas Johnson when he heard about it while visiting the Louisiana Capitol in Baton Rouge. Johnson, who is black, is from New Orleans and represented by Carter. He fears that Republicans will redraw the state’s congressional map in a way that dismantles predominantly black districts.
“I feel like this is an embarrassing attack on minorities, particularly the black community,” Johnson said. “We have very few (votes) in Congress.”
Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist who advises the Black Caucus, said he expects the group to be involved in multiple legal battles for members whose districts will be targeted after the Supreme Court decision. He also said the decision makes voter turnout efforts even more important “if we want to change course on some of the things that are likely to happen because of this decision.”
Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama, whose state was at the center of a major voting rights case decided in favor of black representation nearly three years ago, agreed that the party must now focus on motivating voters ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
“Now more than ever, we need communities across the country to step up – in state legislatures, in the courts and at the ballot box,” Sewell said. “We must vote like we have never voted before.” ___ Associated Press writers Leah Askarinam, Matt Brown and Ali Swenson in Washington and Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed to this report.
