The U.S. Supreme Court is about to take up Louisiana v. Callais (No. 24-109), a case that may seem far removed from your local city council, school board, or county commission but don’t be fooled. The outcome of this case could shape how political power is carved up in your own backyard for decades to come.
At issue is whether the federal government can continue using the Voting Rights Act to force states to draw political districts primarily based on race. While that might sound like a noble cause, in practice it has become a tool of division and manipulation not empowerment.
Earlier this week, I filed an amicus brief urging the Court to end this practice. Not because I oppose equality but because I believe in real representation. Racially engineered districts may have once served a purpose, but today they are being used to pack and isolate voters, protect incumbents, and suppress any real political challenge to the status quo. It’s a form of political redlining and it’s happening right now in every city, county and small-town across America.
In my book, Subverting the Republic, I trace this systemic manipulation back to 1913, when three disastrous changes upended our constitutional balance: the 17th Amendment stripped states of their voice in the Senate, the Federal Reserve removed financial power from Congress, and the federal income tax turned citizens into permanent revenue streams for Washington. Since then, we’ve watched political machines become the norm where big money, not everyday voters, call the shots.
Then in 2010, Citizens United supercharged the system, giving corporations and billionaires the green light to dump unlimited money into campaigns. Today, the very same interests that manipulate federal districts are quietly pulling strings at the state, county, and even school district levels.
If you’ve ever wondered why it’s so hard to get a good candidate on the ballot… If you’ve seen your local elections turn negative and expensive overnight… If you’ve felt like your vote just doesn’t matter anymore… —this case explains why.
The power to divide us by race, by zip code, by party has become a business model. And unless this Supreme Court stops the use of race as the primary factor in drawing districts, that model will continue to thrive… right down to the school board meetings and city halls that used to be immune from this nonsense.
This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s not about left or right it’s about up and down. The people at the top want more control. The people at the bottom in cities, towns and counties like yours and mine are the ones who lose their voice..
The good news? Louisiana v. Callais gives the Court a rare chance to draw a line in the sand. To say that districts should be drawn based on communities, not categories. On citizens, not skin color.
And for small-town voters, that would be a long-overdue win.
Steven Bradley is the author of Subverting the Republic: How the 17th Amendment and Citizens United Corrupted the Balance of American Government. He recently filed an amicus brief in Louisiana v. Callais and publishes regularly at SubvertingTheRepublic.com, where readers can access the full brief and learn how to support reform in their own counties and states. You can find the book at amazon.com/dp/ B0FFVNGHRY
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