By Bella Carpentier
The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration in major legal debate about the Louisiana congressional map, raising questions of what it could mean for the 1965 Voting Rights Act and redistricting efforts in South Carolina.
The South Carolina House of Representatives erupted in a brief frenzy around 11 a.m. on April 29, shortly after the Supreme Court voted 6-3 that Louisiana's congressional map is unconstitutionally racially gerrymandered. In response to the ruling, the South Carolina Freedom Caucus renewed its calls to redraw South Carolina's congressional districts.
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The Louisiana decision could have ramifications for other states, including South Carolina, that are considering redrawing their congressional lines. Lynn Teague, the vice president of issues and advocacy for the League of Women Voters of South Carolina, said it is difficult to predict how the Louisiana case will impact South Carolina.
According to Teague, South Carolina's 6th Congressional District is colloquially called the Voting Rights Act district. It was drawn as a majority-minority voter district in the 1990s to comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
"It was the Voting Rights Act that established that redistricting had to provide an opportunity for minority voters to have a voice in how they're governed (and) in who governs them," Teague said.
The South Carolina redistricting efforts in the 1990s pulled more Democratic voters into the same district, cementing the 6th District Democratic majority while giving previously competitive districts a stronger Republican majority.
She said the courts have been consistent for decades in how they interpret the Voting Rights Act, but the current makeup of the Supreme Court departs from that and diminishes its power.
"For South Carolina specifically, it's frankly hard to say what the outcome will be," Teague said
For years, South Carolina was entrenched in a legal battles over its congressional map. The League of Women Voters of South Carolina (LWVSC) filed a lawsuit over the state's 2022 congressional map. The organization argued that the legislature redrew congressional lines to transfer Democratic voters out of District 1, a competitive district for each political party, and into District 6, a district that already had a Democratic majority.
The League argued the 2022 maps gave Republicans an unconstitutional competitive advantage in District 1. The South Carolina Supreme Court dismissed the case in September 2025 in a decision that did not deny the partisan gerrymander. The court said instead that there are no constitutional provisions or statutes that prevent partisan gerrymandering.
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