Supreme Court Upholds Louisiana Legislative Authority— Will Not Force Redistricting

The Supreme Court of the United States has declined to hear two emergency requests to force the redrawing of the Louisiana Congressional District map with the purpose of adding a second majority-Black district. Instead, the matter will be referred to the State legislature to act according to a federal district court ruling that sided with an interest group representing Black voters, ruling that the legislature’s approved map violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

According to The Hill, the Plaintiffs in the appeal to SCOTUS claimed that the intervention of the coot was necessary to guarantee a fair voting map for the 2024 election after an appellate court ruling blocked a hearing that would’ve forced a remedial map into use while Louisiana challenges the previous ruling.

The order from the 9 justices was brief and had no public dissension, the court flatly refused to hear the requests that the hearing be resumed immediately.

In a single concurring opinion released publicly, Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a left-leaning justice appointed by President Joe Biden said she still expects the hearing to move forward.

“I read the Fifth Circuit’s mandamus ruling to require the District Court to delay its remedial hearing only until the Louisiana Legislature has had sufficient time to consider alternative maps that comply with the Voting Rights Act,” Jackson wrote.


She continued, “The State has now represented, in its filings before this Court, that the legislature will not consider such maps while litigation over the enacted map is pending. … Therefore, the District Court will presumably resume the remedial process while the Fifth Circuit considers the State’s appeal of the preliminary injunction.”

The current state of play in the ongoing litigation is that the Louisiana legislature, dominated by a GOP supermajority, overrode the veto of outgoing Democrat Gov. Jon Bel Edwards and passed a map that has one majority-Black congressional district of the state’s six allotted. The plaintiffs argue this is insufficient citing the state's demographic layout with one-third of the population being Black, ignoring the geographic dispersal of the black population.

As reported by AGR previously, a federal district judge preliminarily ruled to block the map on the basis that it allegedly violates the Voting Rights Act. This ruling is presently in effect. The judge ruled further that a hearing to implement a remedial map was to take place Oct. 2nd. However, prior to that hearing the 5th Circuit Court blocked the hearing through a writ of mandamus, ordering instead that the lower court must give the Louisiana legislature the time and opportunity to pass a map revision that meets the ruling.

Lousiana wrote in it’s filing to SCOTUS, “This Court’s unbroken pronouncements establish that their preliminary win via a rushed preliminary-injunction hearing is no substitute for a final trial on the merits. The Plaintiffs’ attempt to skirt the normal litigation process demonstrates that the equities weigh decidedly in the State’s favor.”

Republican, LocalMatthew HollowayLouisiana