WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock condemned the Supreme Court's decision striking down Louisiana's congressional map and narrowing the Voting Rights Act at a press conference in Washington last week. The Georgia Democrat called the ruling a blow to democracy and to minority voters in the South.

The Supreme Court's conservative majority found that compliance with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act could not justify the use of race in redrawing House district lines. The map struck down by the court had included two majority-Black districts. The outcome is expected to make it more difficult for minority voters and voting rights groups to successfully challenge voting maps under Section 2.

"What happened this week is nothing less than a massive and devastating blow, not only to our democracy, but particularly to people of color in the South," Warnock said. He linked the decision to the court's 2013 ruling, which struck down a formula under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act that required certain states to obtain federal preclearance before changing voting procedures.

Since the decision, Republican governors in a handful of states including Louisiana and Tennessee have called for special sessions of their state legislatures or expressed interest in redrawing congressional maps. Last year, President Trump's political team pushed Texas GOP leaders to redraw that state's congressional map, and Democrats in California launched a counterpush to redraw their own map. Democrats and Republicans in other states made similar efforts.

"The court, sadly, poured fuel on this redistricting arms race," he said. Warnock said he supported the Democratic response while opposing the underlying practice. "I support the push by Democrats on redistricting because Donald Trump — who is better at dividing us than anybody I know — instituted an arms race in redistricting," he said. "I don't like gerrymandering, but we could not unilaterally disarm."

"The solution to this really is to ban partisan gerrymandering," he said. "It turns our elections on their head, so that rather than the people picking their politicians or their public servants, the politicians are picking their voters."