I agree with those who think the Supreme Court made a mistake in narrowing the scope of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. But rather than join in the ritual and perhaps overheated condemnation of the decision in Louisiana v. Callais, perhaps we might take the occasion to consider its place in the larger conversation about righting racial wrongs.

To start, although I disagree with Justice Alito’s opinion for the 6-3 majority, let’s be clear about what the Supreme Court didn’t say — and what it did.

The majority did not rule that no legislature may ever create what has come to be known, in a dreadful neologism, as a “majority-minority” district.1 Rather, the justices ruled that absent an express instruction from a court or Congress, the legislature can’t take race into account in drawing district lines.

Nor may a federal court order a legislature to do so, unless the court has made a factual finding of current discrimination against minority voters — not discrimination in the past, but discrimination now — and has also determined that the discrimination can only be remedied by redrawing district lines with race in mind.

That’s not my view of how voting districts should be drawn, but it’s not a ridiculous interpretation of either the Voting Rights Act or the Constitution, and it’s quite a stretch to call the outcome racist. Instead, the decision should be seen as part of our larger national debate over whether,........

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