Rep. Bennie Thompson (D) criticized a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States that he argued weakened protections for minorities under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Thompason is furious now that Republicans in Mississippi are preparing to redraw congressional district boundaries that could threaten the seat Thompson has held for roughly 30 years.
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In an April ruling, the nation’s highest court said that congressional districts based primarily on race were unconstitutional, meaning that they would have to be redrawn to ensure fairness.
“I was very disappointed with the Supreme Court’s decision,” Thompson told WAPT.
GOP Gov. Tate Reeves and Republican lawmakers in Mississippi are preparing to redraw congressional, state legislative, and state Supreme Court district lines ahead of the 2027 election cycle.
Thompson claimed that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling weakens voter protections by giving state legislatures broader authority to redraw political maps without the stricter standards previously associated with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 regarding racial considerations in redistricting.
Backers of the ruling have argued that drawing congressional districts based on race actually weakened representation because doing so gave outsized political power to one ethnic group over others.
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“We have created an opportunity in the South for black, brown, and white people to vote for the candidate of their choice. All of a sudden with this Supreme Court decision, it has taken us back,” Thompson claimed.
“Black voters matter and white voters matter, but when you deprive either group of the right to participate, that should not be. Those of us who have advocated in voter participation and other things, we are trying to get it done. I am bothered when I see people in positions trying to deny that,” he said.
Nothing about the high court’s ruling denies anyone – regardless of race – the right to vote or be represented, despite what Democrats have claimed.
Thompson also said that he represented people better than any other member of his state’s congressional delegation.
Rep. Bennie Thompson on Trump’s redistricting push: “I wouldn’t expect any less out of a convicted felon.”
Follow our reporting on redistricting: https://t.co/jDZk5en8Oa pic.twitter.com/70TzEllqYV
— Mississippi Today (@MSTODAYnews) May 21, 2026
“Look at my voting record, it says that I care about education, housing, and healthcare, and my vote reflects that. More so than any other member of our delegation, but somehow, that is bad,” Thompson said, per WAPT.
Mississippi Republicans have called for the elimination of Thompson’s seat in order to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“Mississippi has long had a congressional district—the second congressional district—which was gerrymandered around race. And there is no reason under this new ruling for that district to exist with the lines that it currently has,” State Auditor Shad White told the outlet.
Meanwhile, a divided Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Alabama’s effort to execute a convicted murderer whom lower courts determined is intellectually disabled.
The decision leaves intact lower court rulings in favor of Joseph Clifton Smith, 55, who has spent roughly half his life on death row following his conviction in the 1997 beating death of a man.
The Supreme Court barred the execution of intellectually disabled individuals in its landmark 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia.
The justices later expanded on that standard in decisions issued in 2014 and 2017, directing states to consider broader evidence of intellectual disability in close cases because IQ testing carries a recognized margin of error.
At the center of Smith’s case is how courts should evaluate defendants whose IQ scores fall slightly above the commonly recognized threshold of 70 associated with intellectual disability.
Smith received five IQ test scores ranging from 72 to 78.
According to his attorneys, Smith was placed in special education classes for students with learning disabilities and left school after seventh grade.
They also said that at the time of the crime he performed math at a kindergarten level, spelled at roughly a third-grade level, and read at approximately a fourth-grade level.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
