SCOTUS’ guts Voting Rights Act brings back a revamped Jim Crow | In Focus

Published 1:00 pm Thursday, May 14, 2026

Means America Is Regressing to Jim Crow 2.0.

What happens when all three governmental branches are dysfunctional at the same time? That’s the state we are in now.

While the implications of the recent Louisiana v. Callais decision are enormous and disastrous, there is a ray of hope for America.

As I have quoted in several columns, from the book Tyranny of the Minority: “We stand at a crossroads: either America will be a multiracial democracy, or it will not be a democracy at all.”

There was a lot of pushback when I asserted in a previous column that Kamala Harris lost in 2024 primarily because she was a multi-racial female. Chistian nationalism has combined with white male domination and fear of demographic changes to put us into the position we find ourselves in today. The recent SCOTUS decision to gut the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 reinforces my argument.

SCOTUS has decided for the nation that race is no longer an issue. Never mind the legacy of the Civil War, Jim Crow laws, the Civil Rights Era, the death of George Floyd, the BLM demonstrations, or the rounding up by I.C.E. of immigrants and citizens based solely on the color of their skin, their accents, and their manual labor skills. The President is acting more and more racist while the Republican-controlled Congress is silent in the face of such blatant discrimination and pressure to deny the right to vote to millions with the SAVE America Act.

In the view of the six majority justices, it’s okay to gerrymander the voting districts as long as it’s for “political reasons” and not racial ones. Several southern states are in the process of redrawing districts even as the primaries are already in motion. Black-voting districts are being wiped off the state district maps for the House. We are seeing the rise of Jim Crow 2.0.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 came as a result of the Civil Rights Movement. In this law, the federal government was tasked with monitoring southern states that had been working to take away voting rights from Blacks. Section 5 of the VRA was struck down on June 25, 2013 with the Court’s argument that Section 2 would protect minorities in the Shelby County Decision. Section 2 was designed to create minority districts that would protect Black voting rights by setting aside Black majority voting districts which would guarantee Black representatives elected to Congress. The Callais decision ended that last protection. Blacks can vote, but they have little chance of electing Black representatives in the South.

Additionally, the Callais decision was made during a time when primaries are already being held. Many voters have already cast their ballots. The governor of Louisiana declared a state of emergency and cancelled those votes in order to redraw the district boundaries. SCOTUS ignored its own Purcell principle: the doctrine that “the courts should not change election rules too close to an election, because of the risk of causing confusion” (Wikipedia.org).

Obviously, dominant white male Christian nationalists in all three branches care more about power than they do about democracy. That’s the bad news.

Now for the good news: President Trump and the Republicans are deeply worried about the midterm elections—for good reason. The President’s poll numbers have dropped to 34%. The war against Iran is unpopular. Inflation is rising due to gas and food price increases. Trump’s obsession with the White House ballroom is now favored by members of the G.O.P. Congress. The cost has risen to $1 billion, with taxpayers footing the bill instead of billionaires. Trump family corruption is rampant and the Epstein Files are a constant drag on the President’s popularity—even among his own faithful—including Marjorie Taylor Green. If you’re honest, you could list other issues.

Trump may figure out a way to rig the midterms, but even with SCOTUS’s help, voting districts in many red states like Texas were “dummymandered,” by expecting Latinos and some Blacks to vote as they had in 2024. They may turn blue because diluting the Black vote into safe red voting districts may cause an upset.

When I started teaching high school back in 1974, I had just come out of a cult and was used to being told what to do. I discovered very quickly that Americans, especially white males, responded with “You can’t tell me what to do!” America was born in rebellion and it’s now part of our national character and DNA.

Our rebellious natures may likely fight against authoritarianism, even if it means overthrowing the Christian Nationalist white dominant males. Let’s hope I’m right.