The Callais decision demonstrates the need for radical reform of the Supreme Court

April 30, 2026

Note to anxious readers: Wednesday was a bad day for democracy. But a complete remedy is within our grasp. Do not despair. Read to the end!

On Wednesday, the Roberts Court destroyed the last vestiges of the Voting Rights Act. For more than six decades, the VRA stood as a towering achievement in the fight to secure equal voting rights for Black Americans, who continue to suffer the effects of nearly two-and-a-half centuries of slavery in North America and 161 years of voter suppression in the United States.

The decision is an abomination. It seeks to repeal the voting protections of the 14^th and 15^th Amendments, which specifically prohibit denial of the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Those amendments empower Congress to enact enabling legislation, long-recognized as authorizing race-based remedies to address race-based discrimination. See South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U.S. 301 (1966) (“[T]he portions of the Voting Rights Act properly before us are a valid means for carrying out the commands of the Fifteenth Amendment.”)

John Roberts’ career has been devoted to abolishing the race-based remedies in the Voting Rights Act. As a young lawyer working for Ronald Reagan, he wrote 25 memos and crafted legal arguments opposing the 1982 reauthorization of the VRA — specifically working to prevent Congress from strengthening Section 2’s protections for minority voters by adding an ‘effects test’ to prove discrimination. See Balls and Strikes, Killing the Voting Rights Act Is John Roberts’s Life’s Work.

Of course, in his confirmation hearing, Roberts claimed that those memos were mere “juvenilia,” the musings of a young lawyer not to be taken seriously. (“It was my first job as a lawyer after my clerkships. I was not shaping administration policy.”)

After Roberts lied his way onto the Supreme Court, he dealt a nearly mortal blow to the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder by invalidating the “pre-clearance” requirement for electoral changes in states with a demonstrated history of racial discrimination in voting legislation. In an infamous passage, Roberts claimed that racial discrimination was a thing of the past in the US, writing

Nearly 50 years later, things have changed dramatically. Voter turnout and registration rates now approach parity. Blatantly discriminatory evasions of federal decrees are rare. . . .[¶] Our country has changed, and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions.

But that was not enough for Roberts. He continued the crusade to kill the Voting Rights Act entirely. On Wednesday, Justice Alito did Roberts’ dirty work in Callais v Louisiana by writing an opinion that makes it essentially impossible to prove under Section 2 of the VRA that discriminatory intent motivated voting legislation. To make proving such intent effectively impossible, Alito added that partisan gerrymandering was legal under the Constitution, even if that partisan gerrymandering had served to implement racial gerrymandering. See Richard L. Hasen, Slate, Callais: SCOTUS’ Voting Rights Act ruling is the worst decision in a century.

Hasen writes,

So when, say, Louisiana goes back and eliminates many Black opportunity districts in its state, it can claim it is doing so to help Republicans, not white people. That’s an outrageous proposition given the considerable overlap between those two groups in Louisiana.

We must be forthright about the effect of Callais: It is a devastating blow to voting rights for Black Americans. It will result in partisan gerrymandering in dozens of states to dilute the voting power of Black voters. The cascading consequences will be bad for democracy, which presumes that voters choose their representatives, not that representatives choose their voters. See Ian Millhiser, Vox, Supreme Court guts the Voting Rights Act. Prepare for maximum gerrymandering.

Before I go any further in describing the opinion, it is important to recognize that we have a complete remedy within our grasp. The evil engine of John Roberts’ master plan to establish Jim Crow 2.0 is partisan gerrymandering, which serves as cover for racial gerrymandering after the Callais decision.

If only there were a way to prevent partisan gerrymandering, we could eliminate racial gerrymandering, thereby achieving the objectives of the Voting Rights Act.

The good news is that there are remedies that will allow us to end partisan and racial gerrymandering. Those remedies will create congressionally mandated national redistricting commissions and national redistricting criteria to replace state legislatures in drawing congressional maps.

Democrats have proposed two pieces of legislation that would do just that:

• The Redistricting Reform Act of 2025 (Would require every state to adopt nonpartisan, independent redistricting commissions and prohibit mid-census redistricting); and

• The Freedom to Vote Act (Would establish enforceable anti-gerrymandering criteria for use in redistricting, and authorize national mail voting, automatic voter registration, online registration, etc.)

What would we need to do in order to enact nationwide redistricting commissions and criteria?

We would need to control both chambers in Congress, abolish the filibuster, and elect a Democratic president. We can accomplish each of those tasks by January 2029, when the new Congress and president are sworn in.

We are on our way to retaking control of Congress and electing a Democratic president. And we must abolish the filibuster to pass democracy-saving legislation. Republicans are already whittling away at the filibuster as we speak in order to fund ICE and Border Patrol with obscene amounts of money. See Politico, Republicans unlock filibuster-skirting power to pump billions of dollars to ICE.

If Republicans are willing to narrow the filibuster to fund ICE, we should be willing to overthrow the filibuster to reestablish fair congressional boundaries that respect the rights of all Americans to have their votes count.

John Robert will undoubtedly be peeved to see his life’s work overruled by Congress and would likely do everything in his power to undermine new pro-voter legislation. That is why we must also expand the Supreme Court in 2029.

Richard Hasen addresses this need in his essay in Slate, Callais: SCOTUS’ Voting Rights Act ruling is the worst decision in a century.

Hasen writes,

So what’s to be done? The Supreme Court itself has shown itself to be the enemy of democracy. If and when Democrats retake control of the political branches, it will be incumbent on them not only to write new voting legislation protecting minority voters and all voters in the ability to participate fairly in elections that reflect the will of all the people; they will also have to consider reform of the Supreme Court itself, a conclusion I had been resisting until the court made this unavoidable.

Richard Hasen is a sober, respected institutionalist who has been resisting the call to reform the Supreme Court. But after the Callais decision, he says that the Court is “the enemy of democracy.” He calls for passage of legislation (described above) and for “reform of the Supreme Court.”

The only Supreme Court reform that can be achieved in a timeframe relevant to this generation and the next is to expand the Court by a substantial number of justices committed to overruling the following cases in short order:

• Citizens United (money in politics),

• Trump v. US (presidential immunity),

• Dobbs (overruling Roe),

• Callais (partisan gerrymandering allowed as cover for racial gerrymandering),

• West Virginia v. EPA (major questions doctrine),

• 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, (allowing discrimination against same sex couples),

• United States v. Skrmetti (ban on gender affirming care for trans youth),

• Heller (individual right to bear arms),

• NY Pistol v. Bruen (right to carry firearms in public),

• Garland v. Cargill (automatic rifles with bump stocks are not machine guns).

If an expanded Supreme Court could overrule those ten cases in the span of four years, we would go a long way toward undoing the worst damage inflicted by John Roberts. Separately, the new majority justices must affirm to cease use of the “shadow docket” to grant relief or make decisions in a summary fashion.

Passage of two pieces of legislation and reforming the Supreme Court is within our grasp. Still, many will claim that those measures are too extreme, arguing that we should “go slow” to avoid injuring the “legitimacy of the Court.” Justice Roberts and his cronies have demonstrated no concern for the legitimacy of the Court. They lied to the Senate in their confirmation hearings, invented new procedures, and inserted words into the Constitution that are contrary to its structure, history, and text, as well as the intent of the Framers.

As I said, the Calais decision is an abomination. I must move on to other stories, but I urge you to read the articles cited above by Ian Millhiser in Vox and Richard Hasen in Slate to get a sense of the extreme bad faith of Alito’s opinion.

It was a bad day in the Supreme Court. But we are on the cusp of regaining the political power that will allow us to undo most of John Roberts’ damage. The sting of Callais will linger for several years, but if we are bold and courageous, John Roberts’s worst will be a distant memory in six years.

Potential resumption of active hostilities against Iran

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testified before Congress for six hours, during which he claimed that “[t] he biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans.” See PBS. Hegseth’s testimony was disgraceful, proving only that he is a clone of Donald Trump without Trump’s charm and intelligence. See WaPo, Hegseth slams ‘defeatist’ lawmakers in fiery House hearing on military budget.

The Hegseth debacle may have spurred Trump to kick-start another wave of hostilities directed at Iran—this time at civilian infrastructure. Trump is reportedly frustrated that Iran has not been bombed into submission at the bargaining table, so he is in consultations to begin another wave of assaults. See Axios, Scoop: Commanders to brief Trump on new Iran military options Thursday.

Axios has morphed into an unofficial wing of the Defense Department media office, so its information typically comes from senior administration officials, including Trump and Hegseth. According to Axios, Trump will be presented with three options:

• Renewed air assaults, this time directed at civilian infrastructure;

• Partial takeover of Strait of Hormuz using ground troops; and

• A special forces assault to capture and remove hundreds of pounds of enriched uranium, likely buried underground.

The first option is the definition of a war crime; the second two options might result in heavy US casualties while posing a significant risk of failure.

But even if Iran were to “re-open” the Strait of Hormuz tomorrow, it would take six months to clear the mines and then several months more to repair storage, production, and loading facilities, and to refill the transportation pipeline. Expect a return to normal within a year if a complete resolution of the war occurs within the next 24 hours.

May Day Strong

On May 1, 2026, multiple grassroots groups are co-sponsoring a national day of boycott and action, May Day Strong. The day has two components—an economic boycott—and local actions. See May Day Participation Guide | Indivisible.

The Indivisible Guide is quite good because it allows you to find a local event, and provides guidance for how to participate. Importantly, it addresses the question of what to do if you can’t afford to boycott work, school, or shopping. I recommend the section in the guide titled “Can’t Do It All?” Do What You Can!, which provides in part:

If you can join an event and fully wield your economic power on that day–that’s great. But we understand that not everyone’s circumstances will allow them to participate fully. And that’s okay—participate to the level that makes sense for you. The most important thing is that you take action in some way on May 1st and then continue to build towards even bigger action in the future.

May Day Strong is a first step, a trial run. A day may come when we need to shut down the economy for days or weeks at a time. Join May Day Strong in whatever way and to whatever extent you can. The practice will prepare us for future actions. Stay May Day Strong!

Concluding Thoughts

Many publications are already running stories about how the Callais decision will affect the midterms. While I don’t know the specific number of seats at risk, I urge people to remain calm and to avoid catastrophizing. It would be difficult to gerrymander districts where primaries have already begun—which includes most congressional districts in America. See Votebeat,

However, [redistricting after Callais] is more likely to happen for the 2028 election, not 2026. It would be, practically speaking, very difficult for most states to redraw their maps at this stage. Mississippi, for instance, has already held its primary under the old lines, and Georgia’s primary is in just a few weeks. And the deadline for candidates to file to run has already passed in most states, including South Carolina and Tennessee.

Moreover, gerrymandering has mathematical limits. The number of districts in each state is fixed, and the number of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents is relatively stable. Redistributing those voters across a fixed number of districts may be mathematically possible, but politically unwise.

Take Texas as an example. Texas’s five gerrymandered districts used Latino and Independent voting patterns from 2024 to redistribute presumptive GOP voters into districts that were formerly “Democratic.” But between Election Day 2024 and today, Trump has lost eight percentage points among Latino voters in Texas and 12 percentage points among Independents in Texas. See The Texas Politics Project (February 23, 2026), Texas Republicans Remain Loyal to Trump While His Job Approval Sags Among Other Groups.

The changes noted above effectively flipped Trump’s standing among Latino voters from 2024 levels—and that change predated the sharp rise in gasoline prices because of Trump’s war on Iran.

In effect, Republicans “counted their chickens before they hatched.” They distributed voters who now view Trump unfavorably across districts that were formerly Democratic-majority districts—perhaps reinforcing Democratic strength in districts that were targeted to be weakened.

The 2026 midterms look like they will be a wave election. Even with recent changes in Florida, and the possibility that the gains in Virginia will be invalidated by the Virginia Supreme Court, the effect of the “wave” should overwhelm the gerrymandering at the margins.

The 2024 presidential election was decided by the 80 million eligible voters who “did not vote.” History is not destiny. We can shape the future. Let’s not let the terrible decision in Callais demotivate us. We are not potted plants; we have agency, power, and determination. Let’s use those attributes to the fullest extent possible. We can win; we are winning. We need only continue on the current path to ensure victory in 2026 and 2028.

Talk to you tomorrow!

Pro-Democracy Protest Photos

[Send photos to rbhubbell@gmail.com. Include city and state.]

Food buying for immigrant families, Beaverton, Oregon

Basket of whistle kits at a local market, Hillsboro, Oregon

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Overpass protest photo, Coralville, Iowa

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Jamaica Plain MA

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Every Wednesday in Havana Illinois

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Indivisible San Jose, San Jose CA.  Interesting and somewhat unexpected responses to today’s messages. The  “Oil and Tech Fund Fascism” seemed to strike a nerve as about 10% of people who responded did so with their middle finger. The “Trump Exploits” message’s few negative responses were no match for the mostly enthusiastic waves and honks! 

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Burlington MA ICE detention photos

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Raleigh Bridge Brigade in Raleigh, NC

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The Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts weekly Visibility Brigade joins Jim Comey in calling for the lawful removal from office of Donald Trump.

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American Tobacco Trail bridge over I-40. Durham NC. Every Wednesday for more than a year.

One person started this last June. It has spread to three locations involving dozens of patriots, meeting twice a week.

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Moral Monday Witness to Stop the War in Iran at the White House, Washington D.C, April 27, 2026, led by Bishop William Barber Jr. and Repairers of the Breach.

No Kings Day in Roswell, Georgia

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