Louisiana v. Callais · ¶121

That is racial vote dilution in its most classic form. A minority community that is cohesive in its geography and politics alike, and that faces continued adversity from racial division, is split—“cracked” is the usual term—so that it loses all its electoral infuence. Members of the racial minority can still go to the polls and cast a ballot. But given the State's racially polarized voting, they cannot hope—in the way the State's White citizens can—to elect a person who they think will well represent their interests. Their votes matter less than others' do; they translate into less political voice. Or, as this Court put it recently, the cracking makes “a minority vote unequal to a vote by a nonminority voter.” Allen v. Milligan, 599 U. S. 1, 25 (2023).

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