Callais Re-Argument Recap

Earlier today, I attended the oral argument in Callais . My global takeaway is a bit more sanguine than Rick’s . When the case was set for re-argument, the new QP flagged Section 2’s constitutionality: whether it constitutes a compelling governmental interest and whether there is a temporal limit to race-based remedial redistricting. However, the conservative Justices seemed more interested in tweaking the Gingles framework than in overturning Section 2 outright. For example, in questioning NAACP LDF attorney Janai Nelson, Justices Thomas and Alito focused more on Gingles and Robinson than the constitutional question. Moreover, Nelson did not receive a question about the temporal-limit argument until she—for the second time—raised it approximately 18 minutes into her argument. Th