Hello, Jonathan Friedland here, host of the Guardian's Politics Weekly America podcast.

Each week, I invite experts to help analyze the biggest headlines in American politics.

Whether it's the latest scandal from the White House or the next election you need to know everything about

will bring you up to date on all things Washington and beyond. Listen,

wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to left, right and center. I'm Susan Davis, in for

David Green. This week, the Supreme Court dealt a major blow to the Voting Rights Act, a foundational

piece of civil rights era legislation.

At issue was Section 2 of the Act that allowed congressional districts to be drawn with race in mind to protect minority voting power, particularly in the South.

Today, nearly all of the Southern Democrats in the House are Black.

At issue in this case was a 2024 Louisiana map to create

a new majority black district, which is now represented by Cleo Fields, a black Democrat.

The court struck down that map in a six-three ruling, and House Speaker Mike Johnson,

who's from Louisiana, celebrated the decision. This is obviously the right result.

They determined that the last map that was drawn for Louisiana was done unconstitutionally,

and we've been saying that consistently from the beginning.

That was the obvious result.

In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan warned of, quote,

far-reaching and grave consequences for minority representation.

Writing for the majority, Justice Alito said Louisiana failed to show it created the district

to prevent intentional discrimination.

And that quote, that map is an unconstitutional gerrymander.

Meanwhile, Congressman Fields told reporters outside the courthouse why the act was critical for

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