Former Vice President Kamala Harris criticized the Supreme Court on Wednesday for allowing states to eliminate Black-majority districts and claiming their only motivation was partisanship.

“What they have done with this decision, by saying that the politics of redistricting is okay, is they are backdooring racism through politics,” Harris said on a call with the progressive nonprofit Emerge. “What they are doing is intentionally about trying to suppress the voice of the people.”

Efforts to eliminate Black-majority congressional seats have swept through the South following the court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais. That ruling, backed by all six Republican-appointed justices, gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by stating that partisan considerations trumped efforts that result in racial discrimination. The only way the act could still be successfully deployed in court is if plaintiffs can prove intentional discrimination, according to the decision.

In response, the Republican government in Tennessee eliminated the state’s lone Black majority district centered on Memphis by splitting the city into three new solid GOP districts. Louisiana Republicans also rammed through a new map eliminating one of two Black-majority districts after canceling a primary election that was already underway. Similar efforts are moving forward in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.

Those who oppose this rollback of the crown jewel of the Civil Rights Movement must not only protest and march in opposition, but also consider “bold” political reforms that “may be about assuming some risk,” Harris said.

“Let’s invite ideas, for example, that are about Supreme Court reform, including the notion of expanding the court,” the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee said. “Let’s invite a discussion about how do we push for statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C.; how are we thinking about the Electoral College.”

Pressure for Supreme Court reform has been building within Democratic circles since Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death and President Donald Trump’s appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to replace her on the eve of the 2020 election. Since then, the court’s conservative supermajority has taken a sledgehammer to hard-won victories for the rights of women, racial minority groups and LGBTQ people.

Those calls for taking on the Supreme Court have only escalated since the court’s decision in Callais. While stopping short of endorsing expansion of the court, Harris’ statement was a signal to the Black community to drop its long-held view that the court can act as a protector of rights and instead look to taking on the court as a political actor engaged in a regressive project to eliminate those hard-won rights from the 20th century.

The Callais decision is also part of an effort by Republicans to “cheat” in order to win the 2026 midterms, Harris said.

“[People are] paying attention to what’s happening with gas prices,” Harris said. “They’re paying attention to this war nobody wanted or asked for. They’re paying attention to inflation going up, unemployment going up.”

Republicans know that “they are in a losing position around the midterms,” she added. So, they will “cheat based on an agenda and a playbook that has been a long time in the making, that is about making elections more difficult – access to the polls more difficult for the people – because they are afraid of the power of the people.”

Trump is also pressuring Republicans to eliminate as many Democratic congressional seats as possible through mid-decade redistricting. Eliminating Black-majority districts that vote for Democrats could help tilt the scales in the race for control of the House in their favor.

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