Supreme Court to rehear case over Louisiana’s second majority-Black district
The Supreme Court on Friday put off deciding whether to uphold a Louisiana map that added a second majority-Black congressional district in the state, saying it would rehear the case in its next term.
States must thread a needle when drawing electoral districts. The landmark Voting Rights Act allows states to consider race as a means to redress discriminatory electoral practices. But maps that are explicitly based on race violate the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, which requires all people to be treated equally.
In a brief order, the justices said they would schedule arguments soon to rehear whether race was the predominant factor in the drawing of the new Louisiana district. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from the court’s action, which was announced on the last day of the court’s term.
The map was used in the 2024 elections, and Democrats won a second congressional seat out of six in Louisiana. Republicans control 220 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, while 212 lawmakers vote with Democrats.
The Supreme Court decision delays the resolution of a long-running—and complex—dispute over Louisiana’s congressional map that featured dueling lawsuits and claims over how to most fairly apportion the state’s voting population. It began in 2022, when the state proposed a voting map with just one majority-Black congressional district, covering New Orleans and part of Baton Rouge.
Black voters and civil rights groups sued, claiming the map diluted their voting power in the state, where about one-third of voters are Black.
A federal court in Louisiana ruled for the plaintiffs, ordering a new map drawn and blocking the state from using the map with one majority-Black district in 2022. The ruling was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th District in New Orleans.
After additional legal wrangling, the state legislature redrew the map in 2024, creating the second majority-Black district. That prompted a group of self-described “non-African American” voters to sue, claiming the map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander that violated the Equal Protection Clause. Louisiana and the plaintiffs in the first lawsuit moved to intervene.
A three-judge panel of the Louisiana district court blocked the state from creating the new district, ruling that race was the predominant criteria for creating it. But in May 2024, the Supreme Court placed that ruling on hold while the state government, along with Black voters and civil rights groups, appealed the panel’s ruling.
State officials said they wanted to end the uncertainty caused by the dispute and keep in place the map with two Black districts. It also had been drawn to preserve the districts of two powerful Republican members of Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
“Louisiana would rather not be here,” Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguiñaga told the Supreme Court during oral arguments in March. “We would rather not be caught between two parties with diametrically opposed visions of what our congressional map should look like. But this has become life as usual for the states under this court’s voting cases.”
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