The outrage was swift and severe when the U.S. Supreme Court, by an ideologically divided 6-3 vote, recently struck down Louisiana's majority Black congressional district as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Critics lambasted the court for gutting the Voting Rights Act , the federal law that had until recently garnered strong bipartisan support and had ensured Black political representation in the South for more than half a century. Many analysts see Jim Crow-era disenfranchisement of