Trucks carrying food aid and fuel, accompanied by a United Nations team, passed through the Kerem Shalom border crossing and arrive in the Gaza Strip on October 16, 2025. (Photo by Hani Alshaer/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A U.S.-led coordination center based in Israel that will oversee implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza is expected to become operational in coming days, two U.S. officials tell ABC News.
The command center, which is tasked with coordinating security, aid and rebuilding efforts inside Gaza, will be led by a U.S. three-star general, at least initially, who has not been identified publicly. The commander will have a foreign deputy, who would be the equivalent of a two-star officer, the officials said.
The center is located inside Israel, just northeast of Gaza at a location not being disclosed to the public for security reasons. Officials said the center will not be located on an Israeli military base to ensure it can remain open to officials from other countries involved in the rebuilding of Gaza.
The center is seen as key to being to execute the extraordinary logistics involved in trying to rebuild and secure Gaza after two years of war. The U.S. and other countries are still discussing what an international security force might look like and how it would operate inside the strip, as well as how food and other aid will be distributed.
Trump has already sent 200 U.S. troops to coordinate the heavy lift; those military units specialize in transportation, planning, logistics and security. They will be working alongside representatives from other partner nations, the private sector and non-governmental organizations.
Sources say the command center is starting off slow, reaching what the military calls “initial operational capability” in coming days.
Senior White House advisers told reporters Wednesday that creation of the International Stabilization Force is under way. They said that Indonesia, Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, Azerbaijan and other Arab and Muslim countries have offered to play a role.
“The International Stabilization Force is starting to be, starting to be constructed and and once that occurs, there’ll be more efforts, but there’s a lot of planning and a lot of very positive conversations between the sides,” one senior U.S. official said.
ABC News’ Isabella Murray contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — ABC News Live’s original docuseries “Last Lands,” the Emmy-nominated and Webby-winning show, is returning for season 2, kicking off in Guatemala’s Petén region. “Last Lands” covers the two-day journey by ATV through the jungle of Guatemala in search of the ancient Mayan city, El Mirador.
Produced in partnership with ABC News Live and Global Conservation, the only international group focused solely on protecting endangered national parks and Indigenous territories in developing countries. The series takes viewers around the world, highlighting the urgent mission to protect our planet’s most threatened places.
Hosted by award-winning correspondent Bob Woodruff, “Last Lands” dives into the hidden stories of Guatemala’ s jungle. This is where the story of the Americas began in the remote area of El Mirador National Park, where the Mayan civilization thrived 2,000 years ago. Their existence ended with a mysterious collapse, leaving behind ruins of their cities in Guatemala’s northernmost corner.
The once-vibrant city stands tall within the forest today, having endured since before the time of Christ. The Mayans built a sprawling city with monuments and buildings up to 200 feet high, featuring ornate facades. They studied science and built roads to last 1,000 years, just as the Romans did.
It was sustained by a rich agricultural economy and connected by a network of causeways, all within 820 square miles located in the Mirador Basin. These cities were interconnected by the world’s first super-highway system, with these ruins being among the 51 pre-Hispanic Mayan cities created around 3,000 years ago.
There are three ways of getting there, either by chartering a helicopter, going on a three-day hike or taking a two-day trip by ATV, which is most preferred by the park rangers linked to the Foundation for Ecodevelopment and Conservation.
Some of these rangers are part of the FUNDAECO Genesis Program — a team of six tasked with stopping poaching and illegal logging. Given cartel activity surrounding the park, these rangers are unarmed but wear bullet proof vests. Some choose to protect their identities.
“All of them are threatened,” program director Francisco Asturias told ABC News. “They are the ones who take people to jail.”
The threats are often from those who were stopped by the Genesis team for destroying the park, which can be anyone from hunters to cartel members. Pulga Garcia told ABC News he has received 500 death threats during his time as a ranger.
“But we always want to continue with the heart of a conservationist, because we were born here,” Garcia said. “To pass it on to my children and from my children, to their children. Because if we lose this jungle, we’re dead.”
(KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip) — While there was joy on the faces of some Palestinians returning to the Gaza Strip this week after two years of war, many said they found their old neighborhoods unrecognizable from the relentless fighting that reduced many of the buildings to rubble.
Following the historic ceasefire agreement enacted on Monday, tens of thousands of displaced residents and nearly 2,000 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons made it back to Gaza, only to find themselves homeless.
“Of course, I was happy about being released, but not happy of being displaced with no safety in place, no life necessities,” said 23-year-old Abdullah Wa’el Mohammed Farhan, one of the former Palestinian prisoners freed on Monday as part of a ceasefire deal that President Donald Trump helped broker.
Standing outside a tent in Khan Younis, where he and his family are living, Farhan told ABC News that he was imprisoned for 20 months as the war with Israel raged on. He said that while detained, he and the other Palestinian prisoners were “completely isolated from the world.”
“When I was told about my release, I didn’t believe it because more than once [Israeli authorities] told us about our release and moved us from one prison to another while being tortured and beaten,” Farhan said.
ABC News has contacted the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Prison Service about the allegations from Farhan and other released prisoners about being tortured and subjected to starvation while incarcerated, but have not received a response.
Fahan’s sister, 21-year-old Samaher Farhan, told ABC News that while she is thankful they have been reunited, she conceded that she was saddened her brother had to return to a community wrecked by the war.
“When I saw Abdullah yesterday, it was mixed feelings of happiness and sadness because of how he looked before he went to prison and how he looked now,” Samaher Farhan said.
She said she hopes to resume living in their home, which is still intact but in an area that is not habitable. For the time being, she said her family is living in a tent.
“We felt bad that this is not a worthy welcoming of a prisoner,” Samaher Farhan said. “How can he come out to a worn tent? So, it was a sad feeling. I even tried not to meet him or sit with him for a long time because the situation is dire in this worn tent.”
She said that when her brother was taken prisoner, their neighborhood was still in good shape, adding, “It was barely 1% of the destruction we have now.”
The United Nations and other organizations have reported that there is no safe place in the Gaza Strip, which is about 25 miles long by 7.5 miles wide. The IDF has designated most of the war-torn territory a “no-go zone,” issuing evacuation orders for civilians there, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
According to a damage assessment by the U.N. Satellite Centre, 83% of all structures in Gaza City, the capital of the Palestinian territory, are damaged. The assessment identified at least 17,734 structures that have been destroyed, about 43% of the total number of structures damaged.
In a report issued on Tuesday, the U.N. estimated that it will cost around $70 billion to reconstruct Gaza.
In its latest report on Wednesday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said that nearly 68,000 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip during the war, which started when Hamas terrorists launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 250 others as hostages.
The final 20 living Israeli hostages were released by Hamas on Monday as part of the ceasefire deal.
Shadi Abu Sido, a Palestinian photojournalist who was among those released from an Israeli prison on Monday, said he was shocked by the widespread devastation that has occurred in Gaza since he was detained in March 2024.
“I entered Gaza and found it to be like a scene of Judgment Day,” Sido said in a video testimony. “This is not Gaza. Where is the world?”
He said that while he was in prison, he was told by an Israeli prison officer that his wife and two children had been killed during the war. But once he returned to his home in Khan Younis, he said he learned that was not the case.
“I heard her voice, I heard my children, I was astonished. It cannot be explained, they were alive,” Sido said in an interview with Reuters.
But for another Palestinian prisoner, the euphoria of being freed was quickly replaced by agony when he learned his three children — ages 2, 5 and 8 — had died in the war.
In a video testimony, the man, whose name was not released, is seen falling to his knees and sobbing.
In the video, the man held a bracelet in the palm of his hand and said he had made it in prison and planned to give it to his youngest daughter.
“I made this for my daughter, whose birthday was supposed to be in five days,” he said in the video.
(WASHINGTON) — Just weeks before the planned meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, China dramatically expanded its restrictions on rare earth minerals, a move the Trump administration sees as a sharp escalation in China’s efforts to tighten its grip on global manufacturing.
China’s new rules, which apply to all countries, are set to take effect in phases on Nov. 8, then Dec. 1.
“It is an exercise in economic coercion on every country in the world,” Ambassador Jameison Greer said Wednesday during a press conference alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “This will give China control over basically the entire global economy and the technology supply chain.”
The move prompted Trump to threaten 100% tariffs on all products from China starting Nov 1st. So far, Beijing hasn’t shown any public indication that it’s pulling back on its controls, but Bessent remains sanguine.
“I am optimistic that this can be de-escalated. Ultimately, we are confident in the strong relationship between President Trump and President Xi,” Secretary Bessent said. ” We’ve had substantial communication with the Chinese over the past few days, and we believe that there will be more forthcoming this week.”
Some experts say Beijing is playing hardball to increase its leverage in these upcoming talks, while undercutting U.S. efforts to boost its industrial base.
Bessent said Wednesday that Trump is still expected to meet with Xi in South Korea despite the tariff threats.
The Chinese government stated on Sunday that it does not want a trade war, but it will also not shy away from it.
“On the tariff issue, China’s position remains consistent: we do not want a trade war, but we are not afraid of one,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement Sunday. “If the U.S. persists in its course, China will resolutely take appropriate countermeasures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.”
China’s move to restrict rare Earth minerals could have global implications.
The restrictions affect a wide swath of the U.S. and global economy. Rare earths are key to producing computer chips, which are needed for many things like smartphones and AI systems. They’re also critical to making magnets to power drones, robots and cars. Rare earths are also crucial for defense technology, including F-35 fighter jets, Tomahawk missiles, and radar systems.
The restrictions mean that foreign firms must obtain Chinese government approval to export products that have even trace amounts of certain rare earths that originate from China.
Given that China is overwhelmingly dominant in this sector, this could have major national security implications.
Ambassador Greer gave an example on Wednesday, saying that “if a car is built in America and sold in Mexico, you would need to seek approval from China before making a sale because of the chips in the car.”
The broad scope of this rule from China is similar to how the U.S. has implemented export restrictions to control chip production around the world that uses American technology.
The sweeping new restrictions are a sign, some analysts say, that China wants the U.S. to roll back its own export controls, and that this fight is about more than just tariffs.
Viktor Kovalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Russia overnight fired more than 300 drones and about three dozen missiles at targets throughout Ukraine, including civilian energy infrastructure and emergency services, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday.
The strike included an attack on the State Emergency Service department in the Kharkiv region, he said.
“There are wounded,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “Recovery efforts are underway everywhere. Emergency services are working.”
Zelenskyy, who is scheduled on Friday to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, said on Thursday that the ongoing strikes only showed that the West needed to continue applying “pressure” on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
That pressure included continuing to update sanctions, but, he said, it could also include longer-range capabilities for the Ukrainian military to strike targets farther into Russia.
“Strong decisions are possible, decisions that can help. And this depends on the United States, on Europe, on all partners whose strength directly determines whether the war will be ended,” Zelenskyy said.
He added, “Now there is an important momentum toward peace in the Middle East. In Europe, this is also possible. That is exactly what I will be discussing today and tomorrow in Washington.”
The Kremlin on Wednesday also addressed the potential for the West to supply weapons for or to greenlight longer-range Ukrainian strikes within Russia.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was quoted in Tass, a Russian state-affiliated media outlet, saying that deliveries of U.S.-made Tomahawks would amount to a “dangerous escalation of tensions” between Russia and the United States.
The Russian strike on Ukraine overnight targeted several Ukrainian regions — with a focus on the Poltava and Kharkiv regions — with a total of about 320 drones, about 200 of which were Shahed attack drones, the Ukrainian air force said. About 37 missiles were also fired, the military said.
Most of those aerial attacks were thwarted by Ukraine or otherwise failed, the air force said. At least 37 drones and 14 missiles made it through Ukraine’s air defenses, the military said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense also reported downing at least 51 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory. Local authorities said the electricity supplies to several settlements in the Volgograd, Voronezh and Belgorod regions were disrupted by the Ukrainian attacks.
Trump on Wednesday said during an Oval Office press conference that he thought Russia and Ukraine were close to a ceasefire deal about two months ago, blaming the impasse on animosity between Zelenskyy and Putin.
“You know, it’s an obstacle. It’s an obstacle,” Trump said. “There’s no question about it.”
U.S. President Donald Trump returns to the White House following a visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on October 10, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Trump traveled to Walter Reed to visit with troops and receive a medical check up. (Photo by Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump, speaking in the Oval Office on Wednesday alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, said his administration is going to “go into other cities” to combat crime.
“We’re going to have a surge of strong, good people, patriots. And they’re going to go in, they straighten it all out,” Trump said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a roundtable discussion in the State Dining Room of the White House on October 08, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump’s administration held the roundtable to discuss the anti-fascist Antifa movement after signing an executive order designating it as a “domestic terrorist organization”. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Democratic senators are alleging that the Department of Homeland Security potentially violated the Hatch Act by asking airports across the country to play a video featuring DHS Secretary Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for the impacts of the government shutdown.
“This appears to be a flagrant violation of Sec. 715, which states ‘No part of any funds appropriated in this or any other act shall be used by an agency of the executive to branch… for the preparation, distribution or use of any… film presentation designed to support or defeat legislation pending before the Congress, except in presentation to the Congress itself,'” Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal wrote in the letter to DHS citing a section from the Anti-Lobbying Act.
The Hatch Act restricts certain political activities by federal employees and by some state, Washington, D.C., and local government workers who are involved or work in federally funded programs. Penalties for violating it include removal from federal employment, suspension without pay, demotion, or blocking a party from federal jobs for up to five years, according to the Office of Special Counsel.
“The law’s purposes are to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation,” according to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel’s website.
In response to ABC News’ request for comment on the call for an investigation, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said “DHS responds to official correspondence through official channels.”
“It is TSA’s top priority to ensure that travelers have the most pleasant, efficient, and safe air travel security experience possible. It is a simple statement of fact that Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, most of our TSA employees are working without pay. It’s unfortunate our workforce has been put in this position due to political gamesmanship. Our hope is that Democrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government,” she said.
The letter followed a number of airports nationwide declining to play the video, saying their facilities’ policies bar the showing of political content. Some of them also pointed to the Hatch Act.
Among the major airports that declined to show the DHS video are LaGuardia, Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy, Charlotte Douglas International, Seattle-Tacoma, San Francisco, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Chicago O’ Hare, Phoenix International and Colorado Springs.
As of Wednesday afternoon, officials at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Michigan and Bismarck Airport in North Dakota said the video was being shown on screens controlled by TSA at the airports and out of their control. Both airports said they were not involved in the decision to play the video. A spokesperson for Detroit Wayne Airport said it has requested that TSA stop playing the video.
The letter to DHS led by Blumenthal and Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed was cosigned by 15 other senators and asks the department to “immediately remove these videos from all TSA checkpoints and cease illegally using federal funds for partisan political messaging.”
The senators also asked DHS to provide information on the funding used to produce the video, including the cost, the approver of the funds, whether anyone from the Trump administration was consulted on the video, and if any outside contractors or organizations were involved in its creation to assess whether any federal laws were violated or funds misused, according to the letter.
A similar letter was sent by Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, ranking member on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, to the Office of Special Counsel demanding an investigation into the video, adding that the OSC is responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act.
“When viewed in its totality, Secretary Noem’s video can only be reasonably interpreted as a partisan message intended to misleadingly malign the Trump Administration’s political opponents, convince Americans to blame ‘Democrats in Congress’ for the ongoing government shutdown, and influence their future votes — all while omitting the fact that Republicans currently control the White House, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives,” Cantwell wrote in the letter.
In this Aug. 18, 2025, file photo, Rep. Gina Hinojosa reacts as a proclamation by the Governor is read inside the House Chamber at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Texas. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images, FILE
(TEXAS) — One of the Texas Democrats who attempted to block Republican efforts to redraw the state’s congressional maps mid-decade is looking to bring that fighting spirit to the governor’s mansion.
Austin-area state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat, on Tuesday launched a bid to unseat Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
Hinojosa told ABC News she believes Texas voters desire a spirited, fresh candidate to take on Abbott, who is running for a fourth term.
“I think Americans are done with politics as usual and are interested in shaking off labels and just wanting to see something real,” she said. “I’m as real as you get — a mom who got mad [who] ran for office.”
A former Austin ISD school board president, Hinojosa will center education, and campaigning on behalf of Texas public schools, in her bid. Hinojosa was elected to the statehouse in 2016.
“After 10 years, I now understand where our money is going and our money is going to vendor contracts and to enrich the billionaire class and not to the needs of Texans,” she said.
Hinojosa was part of the first wave of legislators who, this summer, left the state to deny their Republican counterparts a quorum, which brought the Abbott-backed special session to implement new GOP-favored congressional maps to a screeching halt.
The quorum break kicked off a national redistricting saga; high-profile Democrats, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Illinois. Gov. JB Pritzker, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul hosted these lawmakers to protest the maps.
Pritzker took on an outsized role in the showdown, helping coordinate the travel and lodging of dozens of state lawmakers as they camped out in Illinois and ran out the clock. Former President Barack Obama even called into their Illinois’ encampment and offered support.
Texas Republicans did eventually pass new congressional maps after establishing a second special session, though Texas Democrats, Hinojosa among them, heralded their collective action as a win. Newsom and California Democrats, in turn, launched their own effort to pass blue-leaning maps, bringing the issue to voters on a proposition this November.
Hinojosa said her involvement in the quorum break “opened my eyes” that voters are ready for a fight.
“I can run for governor because I have faith in Texans that they will have my back and that they are in this with me. That quorum break did expand my understanding of where Texans, where voters are today in 2025 when it comes to what they want to see their leaders doing,” she said.
But Hinojosa, a self-described populist, has a lot of ground to gain. No Democrat has won a statewide office in Texas since 1994. And Texas’ Latino population has been slowly edging toward Trump over the last few elections. Trump led former President Joe Biden by 6 points in the state in 2020 — and the gulf grew in 2024, when trounced former Vice President Kamala Harris by 14 points.
She must also edge out serious Democratic challengers in the primary. Andrew White, the son of former Texas Gov. Mark White, is also running. And she faces the potential of more well-known Democrats jumping into the fray. (Though Hinojosa says both Rep. Joaquin Castro and former congressman Beto O’Rourke have told her they’ve ruled out a gubernatorial run.)
Despite it all, she feels she can navigate these challenges. And is making a bet that Texas voters feel the same.
“People want change. I’m the candidate of change. Greg Abbott is the candidate of status quo, of the insider club enriching themselves with our taxpayer dollars. So, I feel very good about being a candidate that represents the desires and what Texans want to see in a leader,” Hinojosa said.
Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., leaves the U.S. Capitol after the last votes before August recess, on Wednesday July 23, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
(FLORIDA) — A Florida judge issued a protective order against Republican Rep. Cory Mills after he was accused by a former girlfriend of threatening to release sexually explicit videos of her, according to court documents.
The judge ordered the congressman to refrain from contacting Lindsey Langston, who was named Miss United States in 2024 and is a Republican state committeewoman from Columbia County.
Langston alleged in July that Mills threatened to release videos of her after their breakup earlier this year and that he threatened to harm any future partners, according to a report obtained from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office in Florida.
In the order, the judge wrote that Langston has “reasonable cause to believe she is in imminent danger of becoming the victim of another act of dating violence” and said the evidence supported Langston’s assertion that Mills had caused her “substantial emotional distress” and that Mills offered “no credible rebuttal” to her testimony.
The order, which remains in place until January 2026, prohibits Mills from contacting Langston in any way and from coming within 500 feet of her residence or place of employment.
In her first comments since the judge’s decision, Langston said she now “feels like I’m able to live my life again.”
“I do feel that justice was served, and I can’t even describe the relief that I felt once I got the phone call that I had been issued the injunction for protection. I felt like I’m able to live my life again,” Langston said on a Zoom call Wednesday with reporters, sitting next to her attorney.
Mills previously said in a statement to ABC News, “These claims are false and misrepresent the nature of my interactions,” and accused a former Florida primary opponent of “weaponizing the legal system to launch a political attack against the man who beat him.”
In the order, the judge said he did not find Mills’ testimony to be “truthful.”
“The court, considering the totality of the testimony and the circumstances, does not find the Respondent’s testimony concerning the intimate videos to be truthful,” the judge wrote.
Speaker Mike Johnson, on Wednesday, was asked about allegations against Mills and told reporters, “I have not heard or looked into details of that. I’ve been a little busy. We have a House Ethics Committee; if it warrants that, I am sure they’ll look into it.”
“You have to ask Rep. Mills about that,” the Speaker added when pressed. “I mean, he’s been a faithful colleague here. I know his work on the Hill. I mean, I don’t. I don’t know all the details of all the individual allegations and what he’s doing in his outside life. Let’s talk about things that are really serious.”
Langston’s attorney Bobi Frank said Wednesday that her client plans to cooperate with any future investigations, including with the House Ethics Committee, and said she had been in contact with “other individuals” involved the matter and alleged that “Miss Langston is not alone.”
Voting rights activists protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court as the court prepares to hear arguments in a case challenging Louisiana’s congressional map in Washington on Wednesday, October 15, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared ready to limit how a key part of the Voting Rights Act long aimed at protecting equal opportunity for racial minority voters is applied to the drawing of state election maps.
During oral arguments in a complicated case challenging the drawing of a second majority-black district in Louisiana, the court’s conservative majority suggested race may have improperly predominated as a factor in its creation.
At the same time, it was not clear whether a majority of the court was prepared to issue a more sweeping ruling that any use of race as a factor in redistricting is unconstitutional.
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has long been a guardrail against states “packing” Black voters into districts and “cracking” communities of color into other districts with an aim of diluting their electoral influence.
Courts that have found a violation of Section 2 then order states to redraw their maps, with an eye on race, to ensure minority voters are given fair chance at political participation.
The law does not require proof of intent to discriminate — prohibiting any discrimination in effect — but several conservative justices suggested that plaintiffs should have to show at least some possibility of intent, a tougher standard to meet.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who could be the key vote in the case, voiced particular concern about the indefinite use of race to draw maps compliant with Section 2.
“This court’s cases in a variety of contexts have said that race-based remedies are permissible for a period of time, sometimes for a long period of time, decades in some cases, but that they should not be indefinite and should have an end point,” Kavanaugh said.
“What is not grounded in case law,” replied Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which is defending Louisiana’s map, “is the idea that an entire statute should somehow dissolve simply because race may be an element of the remedy.”
The court’s longstanding precedents have said that race cannot be a primary motivating factor when drawing congressional districts under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, but they also grant states have breathing room to consider race in order to comply with the Voting Rights Act.
The court most recently upheld Section 2 in a 2023 decision.
“What Section 2 does is to say where the effects [of a congressional map] are discriminatory such that … African Americans here are not being given the same voting opportunities as white people are, then a remedy is appropriate,” Justice Elena Kagan told Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguinaga. “That remedy doesn’t have to be race-based, but sometimes it is race-based in order to correct the racially discriminatory situation that exists.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson most vigorously defended the legacy of Section 2 and its use to create two majority-black districts in Louisiana, describing the Civil Rights-era law as a “tool” to identify racial disparities.
“It’s like a tape measure that we’re looking [at] as to whether or not certain circumstances exist, and those circumstances that Congress is worried about – unequal access to electoral opportunity,” she said. “That’s why it doesn’t need a time limit, because it’s not doing any work other than just pointing us to the direction of where we might need to do something.”
Justice Samuel Alito said outright that he believed lower courts did not correctly apply the Supreme Court’s precedents around Section 2 to the maps at issue in Louisiana.
“There’s a serious question about whether the Black population within the district in question in the illustrative map was geographically compact,” he said, referring to one of the legal requirements for a VRA-compliant map.
A decision in Louisiana’s favor could, at the very least, require the state to redraw its map under more race-neutral criteria ahead of the 2026 midterm election. The two majority-black districts are represented by Democrats.
A broader conclusion in the case could upend congressional maps nationwide, potentially triggering the redrawing of race-neutral districts in multiple states and in turn putting minority representation at risk in legislatures nationwide.
Nelson argued that a further rollback of the Voting Rights Act would be “catastrophic.”
“If we take Louisiana as one example, every congressional member who is Black was elected from a VRA opportunity district,” she said. “We only have the diversity that we see across the south, for example, because of litigation that forced the creation of opportunity districts under the Voting Rights Act.”
The court is expected to release a decision before the end of its term in June 2026. How quickly it releases its ruling could determine whether or not states will have sufficient time to redraw maps — if necessary — before midterm voting begins.
