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Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stunned Americans this week when, during oral argument in the Louisiana redistricting case, she drew a straight-line comparison between minority voters’ access to the ballot and the barriers faced by disabled Americans — even saying “They’re disabled.” That choice of words was jarring and rightly set off alarm bells across the political spectrum, because it reduces the dignity of Black voters to a legal category rather than treating them as equal citizens with agency.
The exchange came in Louisiana v. Callais, a case that asks whether state-drawn maps that create a second majority-Black district violate constitutional colorblindness or properly remedy vote dilution under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The Court’s conservative majority pressed hard on whether race can continue to be the guiding line in drawing political boundaries, and the stakes could reshape representation for years to come.
Conservatives and many Americans of goodwill reacted with disbelief that a Supreme Court justice would make such an analogy; critics across the right called it insulting and legally incoherent, arguing you don’t solve political differences by treating people as biologically or politically “impaired.” That outrage isn’t just theater — it’s serious, because equating race with disability hands Democrats a vision of government that infantilizes minority communities and justifies ever-more intrusive race-based remedies.
Beyond the rhetorical shock, the legal implications are enormous. Conservative justices at the argument signaled they are prepared to rein in or dramatically reinterpret Section 2, and observers say the Court may issue a decision next June that narrows the leeway for race-conscious maps. If the judiciary pulls back on race-based remedies, Congress and voters should beware of the political scramble that will follow.
Predictably, civil-rights groups and liberal activists rushed to defend the comparison as a necessary recognition of persistent barriers and a reason to preserve aggressive enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. That response only underscores the divide: one side sees legal protections as tools to empower citizens, the other increasingly treats whole groups as perpetual wards in need of corrective engineering from on high. Americans who believe in equal treatment under the law should reject both the patronizing language and the slippery slope it reveals.
This moment should wake up every patriotic, hardworking American who cares about a colorblind republic and the principle that voters are citizens, not categories to be managed by elites. Hold your elected officials and the courts accountable, demand clarity about what “access” really means, and fight to preserve the idea that political power should follow persuasion and community, not a permanent racial caste system. The future of fair representation is on the line — and conservatives must be loud, principled, and unafraid to reclaim the argument for liberty and equal citizenship.
