US supreme court appears poised to weaken key pillar of Voting Rights Act

Dispute over Louisiana district returned to justices after long legal saga – and could have far-reaching implicationsA 160-year-old campaign against civil rights heads to the supreme courtUS politics live – latest updatesThe conservative majority on the US supreme court appeared poised to weaken a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act after a lengthy oral argument on Wednesday.“This court’s cases in a variety of contexts have said that race-based remedies are permissible for a period of time. Sometimes for a long period of time, decades in some cases, but they should not be indefinite and should have an endpoint. What exactly do you think that endpoint should be?” asked Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a key swing vote in the case, to Janai Nelson, a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, who was defending the maps. Continue reading...