Justice Kagan runs through the Supreme Court’s recent assaults on the Voting Rights Act then asks the Alabama solicitor general: If you succeed in blowing up the VRA’s ban on dilution of minority votes, what’s left of the law?

Justice Jackson tells the Alabama solicitor general that the Framers of the 14th Amendment did NOT intend it to be “race neutral or race blind,” so taking race into account to protect minority voting rights is perfectly constitutional. Progressive originalism at work.

More KBJ: The 14th Amendment "was drafted to give a constitutional foundation for a piece of legislation" that used "race-conscious" remedies to make Freedman equal to white citizens. So how could the Voting Rights Act's race-conscious remedies possibly be unconstitutional?

For decades, conservative justices insisted the 14th Amendment demands a "color blindness," prohibiting race-conscious remedies designed to help racial minorities. KBJ just directly challenged this claim on originalist grounds, arguing that it gets the history dead wrong.

Justice Sotomayor, gloves off: "Justice Alito gave the game away ... The point that he's making turns Section 2 [of the VRA] on its head because there's no such thing as racial neutrality in Sec. 2. It's explicitly saying that a protected group must be given equal participation."