A new court filing from Louisiana Republicans seeks to deliver a fatal blow to what remains of the Voting Rights Act’s protections against racist gerrymandering.

The Supreme Court is hearing a Louisiana-based case that will determine whether it’s legal to purposefully draw majority-minority districts at all — and Wednesday’s court filing from Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill asks the justices to reject any consideration of race in redistricting.

The filing basically asks the Supreme Court to find the state’s new congressional map — which was redrawn under court order to signal compliance with the Voting Rights Act and has two majority-Black districts out of six total — illegal. In a separate case, a federal appeals court recently upheld a finding that the district maps for the Louisiana Legislature are in violation of the landmark 1965 law on voting.

The filing includes the Orwellian declaration that Louisiana “wants out of this abhorrent system of racial discrimination.”

The filing includes the Orwellian declaration that Louisiana “wants out of this abhorrent system of racial discrimination.” Essentially, this means Louisiana conservatives want the Supreme Court to unburden their state — and consequently, other states — from having to prevent flagrantly racist attempts to suppress the power of nonwhite voters in the redistricting process.

It’s a gambit designed — as my colleague Jordan Rubin has noted — to strike at the heart at the Voting Rights Act. And this comes after the Trump administration used a similarly dubious justification to pressure Texas Republicans to institute a racist gerrymander in Texas that dilutes Black and Latino voter power.

Between its assortment of avowed bigots and segregation-friendly policiestoday’s conservative movement bears a stark resemblance to the one that rose to prominence during the Jim Crow era, bolstered by unmistakably racist policies that disempowered virtually anyone who wasn’t a white conservative. Louisiana’s court filing — and its potential implications for the Voting Rights Act’s protections — risks dragging the U.S. back to that period, to a time when white power could be openly codified through the redistricting process, before a single vote was cast.

Ja’han Jones

Ja’han Jones is an BLN opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. He is a futurist and multimedia producer focused on culture and politics. His previous projects include “Black Hair Defined” and the “Black Obituary Project.”

“A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we would like a dictator,’” President Donald Trump told reporters who asked him about his threats of deploying the National Guard in Chicago. No, Mr. President, no kings, no dictators, no need for the National Guard in Chicago.

We don’t need Trump’s troops on our streets. What we need is investment in our neighborhoods, food on our tables, health care for our families and safety, rooted in justice and opportunity, in our communities. In fact, thanks to the investment in community intervention initiatives, Chicago’s rate of violent crime has fallen 22% this year to date; homicides are down more than 33% and shootings are down 38%. Similar declines have been observed in other Democratic-led citiessuch as Baltimore and Washington, D.C., that are also being threatened by Trump’s unlawful actions.

You can’t claim to protect people while stripping away the resources they rely on to survive.

Trump knows that. He knows there is no good reason to deploy the military inside the United States. For him, abusing the power of the National Guard is not about protecting public safety — it’s about control. It’s about threatening diverse, successful Democratic-led cities, like ours, that refuse to bow to authoritarianism.

Trump has repeatedly targeted cities that fight back against his power grabs and harmful, unconstitutional actions — whether by defending immigrants, protecting reproductive rights or standing against his disastrous economic policies like his tariffs. He has sought to use U.S. military power to retaliate against his political opposition, while creating a political spectacle that distracts from his unpopular and damaging policies.

We’ve seen this playbook employed before. Earlier this year, Donald Trump deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles to clear peaceful protesters standing up for their neighbors, against his violent immigration raids. Their actions didn’t quell unrest or de-escalate the situation — they inflamed tensions, instigated confrontation and created opportunities for the administration to violate Americans’ constitutional First Amendment rights.

So when Trump talks about “restoring order” with National Guard troops, let’s call it what it is: a suppression of dissent. An expensive, unlawful political stunt. A distraction from failed policies. An attempt to instill fear in the communities that have every right to protest.

Chicago is next on his list. But we will not be intimidated.

Chicago is the city of labor strikes, sanctuary movements and civil rights. We are home to freedom fighters, organizers and community caregivers. We know how to take care of one another — and we know how to defend our rights and communities.

This is not just about one city. It is not about politics. It’s about who we are as a nation.

From day one, this White House has done its best to make Chicagoans poor, sick, scared and silent. Trump and his administration have cut the very programs that keep our communities safe and help us thrive. Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Justice Department froze and rescinded community violence prevention grants, undermining programs that were designed to interrupt cycles of gun violence in cities.

His 2025 budget proposes cutting $3 billion from Medicaid and reducing SNAP benefits for millions of working families, gutting access to health care and food for tens of thousands of Chicagoans. These aren’t luxuries; they are the foundation of public safety and community well-being. You can’t claim to protect people while stripping away the resources they rely on to survive.

Instead of stealing our resources and programs to provide trillions of taxpayer dollars to the ultrawealthy in tax breaks, Trump and his administration need to invest in our communities.

We see through the smoke and mirrors. The president’s harmful policies, combined with his use of fear-based propaganda and militarization, clearly reflect tactics commonly used by authoritarian regimes to silence dissent. But we will not be silenced nor will we bend the knee.

Combined with the National Guard deployments in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Trump’s threat against Chicago desensitizes us to federal overreach. He is eroding our constitutional boundaries and normalizing the abuse of our military power so that he can succeed where he failed his first term: to undermine our democratic institutions, perpetrate a coup and hold our country hostage.

This is not just about one city. It is not about politics. It’s about who we are as a nation. When armed troops are sent into American communities to suppress protests, target civil society leaders or facilitate the disappearances of our neighbors, that is not just a local issue — it strikes at the core of our democracy. We cannot let this continue.

Everyone in local government, in the business community, in civil society and in Congress — regardless of political affiliation — needs to show courage, recognize the threat to our people, our freedoms and our democracy, and condemn Trump’s unlawful overreach before it becomes normalized. We need to speak out, to push back and to define the very values that have been laid out by our Constitution: the right to free speech, peaceful assembly and protection from government overreach. If this continues, we risk eroding the very rights that define what it means to be American.

Rep. Delia Ramirez

Delia Ramirez represents Illinois’ 3rd Congressional district in the House of Representatives.

The Trump administration has requested that a military base near Chicago be available to provide support for immigration operations in the area, according to local media reports, signaling a possible escalation in President Donald Trump’s plan to expand federal law enforcement to other major American cities.

Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois’ largest military installation and training station, could soon house agents with the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to an email Navy Capt. Stephen Yargosz reportedly sent to his leadership team Monday.

“These operations are similar to what occurred in Los Angeles earlier this summer. Same DHS team,” Yargosz wrote in the email cited by the Chicago Sun-Timeswhich first broke news of the request Wednesday (neither BLN nor NBC News has reviewed the email). “This morning I received a call that there is the potential to also support National Guard units. Not many details on this right now. Mainly a lot of concerns and questions.”

Matthew Mogle, a spokesperson for the base, declined BLN’s request for comment and referred questions to DHS and ICE. Mogle did, however, tell NBC Chicago that “Naval Station Great Lakes has been approached by the Department of Homeland Security regarding a potential request to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.”

When asked about its plans for the naval base, DHS provided a statement that did not address those reports.

When Trump announced plans last week to “straighten out” ChicagoIllinois Gov. JB Pritzker vowed to fight back.

“There is no emergency in Chicago that calls for armed military intervention that will disrupt the daily lives of our people,” he said. “What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal. It is unconstitutional. And it is un-American.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson called Trump’s intention to deploy the National Guard in the city “uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound.”

Johnson did not respond to a request to comment on, and Pritzker declined to comment on, reports about the possible use of the base.

“President Trump’s continued threats to send National Guard and federal troops to Chicago reflects all his worst authoritarian instincts,” Edwin Yohnka, director of communications and public policy at the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, told BLN. “Where we see violations of basic rights, we will act and demand that Trump and his federal forces are held accountable for these violations.”

On Aug. 11, Trump declared a public safety emergency in Washington, D.C.and federalized its police force, deploying thousands of National Guard troops to crack down on what he called “out-of-control crime,” despite city leaders pointing to statistics that show violent crime in Washington is at a 30-year low.

While the nation’s capital falls under federal authority as a city without statehood, National Guard units outside the district typically fall under the authority of state governments, although some military experts have argued it may be within the president’s powers to send them wherever he wants.

Are Salam

Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for BLN Digital. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.