Louisiana voting rights pioneer loses Supreme Court case weakening Black representation

Press Robinson helped redraw the political map of East Baton Rouge Parish decades ago, and on April 29, 2026, he found himself on the losing side of a Supreme Court decision that weakened the Voting Rights Act and cut back Black representation in Louisiana.

Robinson was the first African American elected to the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board after he filed a federal lawsuit challenging the board’s at-large voting system. That case led to the creation of three majority-Black districts, and Robinson served on the board from 1980 to 2002, including three terms as president. His own career became a model for how legal pressure and organizing could turn Black population growth into political power.

The Court’s 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, also styled Robinson v. Callais, invalidated Louisiana’s congressional map and effectively struck down a second majority-Black district. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion, which affirmed and remanded the case. The decision narrowed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the central federal protection against vote dilution that civil-rights lawyers have used for decades to challenge maps that weaken minority voting strength.

The dispute began with Louisiana’s 2022 congressional map, which federal courts found likely violated Section 2 because it diluted Black voting power. After that ruling, the Louisiana Legislature passed a new map in January 2024 that created a second majority-Black district. That plan was then attacked as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, setting up the case that reached the Supreme Court and left Black voters with fewer safeguards than before.

Robinson said after the ruling that he was deeply disappointed and warned that Louisiana leaders were determined to keep Black voters from having a voice. Civil-rights groups, including the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, called the decision a major blow to minority voting power and said it threatened protections that for six decades helped elect thousands of Black and Hispanic officials nationwide.

The stakes are unusually high in Louisiana, where Black residents make up a large share of the population and the fight over congressional districts has become a test of how far the Voting Rights Act still reaches. Robinson’s long arc, from courtroom challenge to school-board breakthrough to this Supreme Court defeat, now stands as a warning that gains in Black political representation can be rolled back as quickly as they were won.