Non-Black voters who successfully challenged the maps separately asked the court to expedite the ruling limiting the scope of the Voting Rights Act.
Supreme Court throws out Louisiana legislative map
The Supreme Court has struck down a Louisiana congressional map that could have limited the power of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to suspend U.S. House elections in Louisiana to allow lawmakers to pass a new congressional map before the November election.
Two officials with knowledge of the decision told the Shreveport Times, part of the USA TODAY Network, that the decision is expected to be announced on the afternoon of April 30th. The change follows an April 29 Supreme Court decision that threw out Louisiana’s congressional map because the majority said it relied too much on race to classify voters.
Non-Black voters who successfully challenged the maps individually asked the court to expedite the decision.
A closed party primary for the state’s six House seats was scheduled for May 16th, with early voting scheduled to begin May 2nd. But Mr. Landry, a Republican, plans to cancel those party primaries and instead opt for a so-called “jungle primary” on Nov. 3, which will feature candidates from either party or independent candidates after new maps are drawn by Congress and the federal courts. The U.S. Senate party primary will continue until the May 16th election.
The new district lines could give Republicans a chance to pick up one or two seats in Louisiana, boosting their efforts to maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) holds a narrow majority.
“We can still do something,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told reporters after the Supreme Court’s ruling. “Obviously these are decisions that need to be made quickly.”
The map, rejected 6-3 by the ideologically divided Supreme Court, includes two majority-black districts that favor Democrats. A group calling itself Non-Black Voters filed a lawsuit alleging that “racial quotas” cost the state a Republican seat in a close Congress.
These districts were created to protect the voting rights of the state’s black residents, who make up one-third of the state’s population.
But Justice Samuel Alito, speaking for the court’s majority, said the map was an “unconstitutional gerrymander” that violated the rights of non-Black voters who challenged it.
Alito said the Voting Rights Act’s vote dilution protections for racial minorities do not work if maps “fail to provide a sufficient number of majority-minority districts.” Rather, he said, there must be evidence that district boundaries were established through “intentional discrimination.”
The decision would jeopardize both majority-black districts in Louisiana and majority-minority districts in other states.
But the ruling, one of the most anticipated rulings this term, may not have arrived in time to make a big difference in this year’s midterm elections. It is possible that some states may attempt to redraw their congressional maps, but they will likely face both practical and legal challenges.
In Louisiana, the court that first considered the congressional map will have to decide which map to use for the November election.
Even if Louisiana postpones its primary, lawyers for non-Black voters told the Supreme Court that “time is still of the essence.” Lower courts cannot file a lawsuit until the Supreme Court sends a certified copy of its decision, a process that typically takes more than a month unless expedited.
The Supreme Court gave black voters defending the map to respond to the challengers’ requests by Thursday afternoon, a tight timeline that suggests the justices could rule quickly.
