Cite as: 608 U. S. ____ (2026) 3 Opinion of the Court §2, as properly construed, can provide such a reason. Correctly understood, §2 does not impose liability at odds with the Constitution, and it should not have imposed liability on Louisiana for its 2022 map. Compliance with §2 thus could not justify the State’s use of race-based redistricting here. The State’s attempt to satisfy the Middle District’s ruling, although understandable, was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, and we therefore affirm the decision below. I A Ratified in 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment provides that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” For many years afterward, however, States “heavily suppressed” the right of black citizens to vote. Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, 594 U. S. 647, 655 (2021). “States employed a variety of notorious methods, including poll taxes, literacy tests, property qualifications, white primaries, and grandfather clauses,” in a “blatant” effort to suppress black voting. Id., at 655–656, and n. 1 (citing H. R. Rep. No. 439, 89th Cong., 1st Sess., 8, 11–13 (1965); S. Rep. No. 162, 89th Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 3, pp. 4–5 (1965); brackets and internal quotation marks omitted). Even “as late as the mid-1960s, black registration and voting rates in some States were appallingly low.” Brnovich, 594 U. S., at 656; see South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U. S. 301, 309– 315 (1966). In addition, States employed legislative districting schemes to prevent the election of black candidates and candidates that black voters preferred. See Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, 602 U. S. 1, 35 (2024); Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U. S. 339, 341 (1960).