Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh arrive for the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Kenny Holston/Getty Images

After an impassioned set of arguments Wednesday over the 1965 Voting Rights Act , the question is whether Justice Brett Kavanaugh is willing to completely dismantle a law intended to ensure equal voting power for Blacks and other racial minorities.

Kavanaugh appears to be the pivotal justice in the Louisiana case, just as he was two years ago in a similar redistricting dispute from Alabama. He and Chief Justice John Roberts, who has demonstrated his own ambivalences on the VRA, worked together on a surprising compromise in 2023 that preserved the force of the landmark act.

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