The Supreme Court narrowed the scope of the Voting Rights Act this week when it ruled that it does not require states to create so-called crossover districts. The regrettable 5-to-4 ruling overturns two of the act’s central goals: protecting minority voting rights and moving the nation toward a more colorblind future.

In crossover districts, minorities are not a majority, but they have enough voting power that they stand a good chance of electing a candidate of their choosing.

When North Carolina redrew its district lines in 2003, it created a district with a roughly 39 percent black voting-age population. In doing so, the line-drawers divided a county into two districts, something the state constitution prohibited. But the state argued that the Voting Rights Act required it to create the district, in which minorities would be a large part of the electorate though not a majority.

The county sued, arguing that the Voting Rights Act does not require the creation of districts in which minorities are less than 50 percent of the voting-age population. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the opinion that controlled the outcome, stated that the act is concerned only with creating districts in which minorities are a majority.