{"id":10255,"date":"2026-05-20T06:00:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/missouris-eric-schmitt-pushes-doj-crackdown-on-majority-minority-congressional-districts\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T06:00:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:00:59","slug":"missouris-eric-schmitt-pushes-doj-crackdown-on-majority-minority-congressional-districts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/missouris-eric-schmitt-pushes-doj-crackdown-on-majority-minority-congressional-districts\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri\u2019s Eric Schmitt pushes DOJ crackdown on majority-minority congressional districts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
\n

Eric Schmitt answers questions during a press conference after filing to run in the Missouri Senate primaries on Feb. 22, 2022 in Jefferson City (Madeline Carter\/Missouri Independent).<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Republicans on a U.S. Senate panel suggested Tuesday a recent Supreme Court decision weakening the federal Voting Rights Act invalidated U.S. House districts in Democratic states where most residents belong to a racial minority group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, signaled that Republicans will target majority-minority districts in blue states as they seek to maximize their opportunities to reshape the political map ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. GOP-controlled Southern states are already rushing forward gerrymanders.<\/p>\n

Schmitt urged the Department of Justice to crack down on states with maps drawn to protect majority-minority districts. A top DOJ official has suggested the agency supports scrutinizing the districts. The demand seems to extend the Supreme Court\u2019s April 29 decision that\u00a0limited states from using race to draw districts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese maps do not become constitutional because they\u2019re already in use,\u201d Schmitt said. \u201cThey do not survive because politicians call them voting rights maps. Yet, they will not disappear on their own. The Department of Justice has an obligation to act.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s\u00a0Louisiana v. Callais decision<\/a> gave states the OK to eliminate districts where most residents belong to racial minority groups in the pursuit of a partisan advantage. Alabama, Florida and Tennessee have advanced new maps, and Louisiana is expected to follow soon. South Carolina is debating its own gerrymander.<\/p>\n

The new district lines, along with gerrymanders enacted before the Callais decision, could ultimately provide Republicans with a net gain of upwards of 10 seats.<\/p>\n

The seats could prove critical as Republicans face political headwinds approaching the midterm elections amid sagging approval numbers for President Donald Trump. A successful legal campaign that forces Democratic states to break apart majority-minority districts could create additional competitive House races.<\/p>\n

Breaking up Democratic districts<\/h4>\n

About one-third of all House districts drawn following the 2020 census were majority-minority, according to a\u00a0Ballotpedia analysis<\/a> \u2014 148 in all. Democrats held 122 as of 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Rights Division,\u00a0wrote on social media<\/a> on April 30 that the department continues to prioritize equal protection under the law, including in voting. Dhillon\u2019s post came in response to a letter Schmitt sent to DOJ raising similar points to what he said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenator \u2014 we are ON IT!\u201d Dhillon wrote.<\/p>\n

Sen. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat and the subcommittee\u2019s ranking member, said the Supreme Court\u2019s decision leaves many communities of color with few enforceable tools to fight unfair maps. He called on the Senate to act by passing a federal ban on mid-decade redistricting and partisan gerrymandering.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur democracy depends ultimately on protecting and preserving the right of individual citizens to pick their politicians, not intensifying the control that politicians have about who the voters are that they will permit to be involved in the election,\u201d Welch said.<\/p>\n

\u2018The definition of racism\u2019<\/h4>\n

Some Republicans have begun to cast majority-minority districts as racist. The loaded rhetoric suggests eliminating these districts is not just politically useful but also a legal and moral imperative.<\/p>\n

Missouri, where Republicans hold six of the state\u2019s eight congressional districts, exemplifies the\u00a0new reality under Callais<\/a>. The Republican-controlled General Assembly approved a map in September that divides Kansas City in a bid to oust Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat who has long represented the city core.\u00a0<\/p>\n

State lawmakers left in place a St. Louis-area district held by Democratic Rep. Wesley Bell where fewer than half of residents are white. But some Missouri Republicans have called the district a racial gerrymander and want the General Assembly to split it apart, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the definition of racism, is drawing districts based on the color of one\u2019s skin,\u201d Missouri Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins told reporters last week. \u201cWe don\u2019t want that in Missouri.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court in the Callais decision did not formally strike down Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race and other characteristics. In practice, however, it may be effectively impossible for gerrymandering opponents to prove discrimination, voting rights experts say.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt begs the question whether or not lawmakers will have to say, \u2018not only do I not like Black voters, but this is the reason why I\u2019m drawing up this piece of legislation,\u2019\u201d Rebekah Caruthers, president and CEO of the nonpartisan voting rights group Fair Elections Center, said in an interview with States Newsroom days after the release of the Supreme Court opinion.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court\u00a0cleared away<\/a> a court order that had blocked Alabama from implementing a map passed by state lawmakers in 2023 that could hand Republicans another seat. A lower court had found the map violated Section 2.<\/p>\n

In Louisiana, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry\u00a0suspended<\/a> the state\u2019s ongoing congressional primary election in anticipation of a new map that will likely eliminate one of the state\u2019s two majority-Black districts. The Supreme Court fast-tracked paperwork in its Callais decision to clear the way for state lawmakers to act quickly.<\/p>\n

Obligation to act<\/h4>\n

During Tuesday\u2019s Senate hearing, Will Chamberlain, senior counsel at the Article III Project, a conservative legal group, said all states with maps drawn to protect minority representation have a \u201cclear duty\u201d to redraw them using race-neutral criteria.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The calendar should be no obstacle, he argued, saying state legislatures can be called into special session and primary elections delayed until new maps are in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that we are well into the 2026 election cycle provides no blanket exemption from these constitutional obligations,\u201d Chamberlain said.<\/p>\n

Callais has unleashed chaos and already undercut fair representation for Black voters, Todd Cox, associate director-counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, told the subcommittee. But he argued the decision doesn\u2019t call into question the constitutionality of majority-minority districts or other districts that give voters of color an opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.<\/p>\n

Cox cautioned against using Callais to justify targeting majority-minority districts that provide that opportunity, saying it might indicate that states intentionally discriminated against minority voters.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Schmitt answers questions during a press conference after filing to run in the Missouri Senate primaries on Feb. 22, 2022 in Jefferson City (Madeline Carter\/Missouri Independent). 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