Whose rights just changed? Our SCOTUS debrief

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A lot went down this term in the Supreme Court. So, we’re breaking down the landmark SCOTUS decisions that affect Black voters, trans athletes and immigrants. B.A. Parker and Code Switch producer Jess Kung go over the outcomes of the cases we’ve been watching, and NPR’s immigration correspondent Ximena Bustillo helps us untangle the latest for immigrants.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everyone. You're listening to Code Switch, the show about race and identity from NPR. I'm
0:07.5	B.A. Parker. And joining me is Code Switch producer Jess Kung. Hey, Jess. Hi, Parker.
0:14.2	All right. What brings you to the mic? So, I worked on most of Code Switch's coverage of the Supreme Court this term, and there was a lot that Scotus decided on that was specifically to do with marginalized groups, immigrants, black voters, trans athletes, and jeans on vacation.
0:31.9	Fair.
0:32.3	But now the decisions are out, it just seemed worth looking at this whole term in the rear view while
0:38.5	we're keeping our eyes on the road, if I can belabor that metaphor.
0:43.2	Hey, keep your hands at 10 and 2 while you're at it.
0:46.2	I have a lot of regrets about this.
0:50.8	Anyway, we know we're not court specialists, so find good work from folks like the NPR politics team about the expansion of executive power and unrestricted campaign spending and all that fun stuff.
1:03.1	Yeah, and later I'm going to chat with Hamanah Bastillo, our colleague who covers immigration and DHS at NPR, to catch us up on what the Supreme Court did
1:13.0	to temporary protected status and asylum. But before we do that, I'm going to walk us through
1:19.2	our little key cases about voting rights, trans athletes, and birthright.
1:27.8	Let's start with the voting rights case, which the Supreme Court ruled on back in April.
1:33.1	Yeah, Gene spoke with our colleague Hansi Lo Wong about the court's ruling in Louisiana v.
1:38.7	Kaleigh, and Hansi laid out the impact of the decision pretty clearly.
1:44.2	It's sending shockwaves through voting maps across the country.
1:49.9	And not just for Congress.
1:51.1	This is for every level of government.
1:53.3	And it's going to make it much, much harder to challenge voting maps with claims that they discriminate against voters of color.
2:02.4	And it's likely going to lead to a decimation of representation of voters of color at all levels of government, especially in the South.
2:11.4	To quickly recap the case, the issue was with a congressional district map drawn in Louisiana meant to comply with the Voting Rights Act.
2:19.3	It created a second majority black district in the state.
	...

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