SCOTUS order sends LA redistricting case back to lower courts
Order paves way for a redrawn congressional map in Louisiana
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal from Louisiana Republicans in an ongoing redistricting dispute, referring the case back to an appeals court in a move that could pave the way for the state’s Republican-crafted congressional map to be struck down.
Across the country, state lawmakers are required to pass new voting maps that account for population and demographic changes reflected in the decennial census. The 2020 census revealed that African-Americans make up one-third of Louisiana’s population. But Black voters make up a majority in just 1 of the Bayou State’s 6 congressional districts.
The Justices had put the Louisiana case on hold while they were hearing a similar case out of Alabama. They ultimately ruled that Alabama’s congressional map likely violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by diluting the strength of Black voters.
Louisiana’s current map was passed in early 2022. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards had vetoed the proposal, arguing that it is entirely possible to draw a second district where Black voters could elect a candidate of their own choosing. But his veto was overridden by the state’s overwhelmingly Republican legislature, allowing the new map to take effect.
In June 2022 an appeals court judge struck down the state’s congressional map and ordered lawmakers to redraw the map in a special session, or else she would enact a map of her own choosing. Republicans then took the case to the Supreme Court, where they won a temporary stay on the lower court ruling.
The Louisiana case was widely expected to follow the same path as the Alabama case. Though the Justices did not strike down Louisiana’s map, Monday’s order sends the case back to the appeals court where it originated — where it was previously ruled unconstitutional.
Louisiana and Alabama are just two states where redistricting re-dos and court challenges are reshaping the battlefield in the fight for control of the House, with Republicans clinging to a 5-seat majority. A similar lawsuit is playing out here in Georgia, where a judge last year hinted that state lawmakers might have run afoul of federal law when carving up new voting districts. The Supreme Court is also set to hear a South Carolina redistricting case this fall.
Battles are playing out in state courts as well. In both Ohio and North Carolina, conservative state courts have given Republican state lawmakers the green light to draw new congressional maps that favor their party.
And after an embarrassing redistricting battle in New York that likely cost their party control of the House, Democrats there are cautiously optimistic that a more liberal state court will give them another shot at passing a map that could relegate Republicans to as few as 4 seats out of 26 (they currently hold 11).