Louisiana’s race and redistricting case to go before the Supreme Court

• The Supreme Court on Monday will begin reviewing a Louisiana case that could decide how large a part race can play when states redraw their congressional districts. The case has been heard in various forms by three different courts since 2022.
• The crux of the debate centers around Louisiana’s sixth district, which was redrawn to be a majority-Black district following population shifts in the 2020 Census.
• The Supreme Court ruled on a similar case in 2023, when Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court’s three liberals in concluding that “color-blind” boundaries could not be used as a basis for redrawing congressional districts.

Full Story

A case concerning a congressional redistricting map out of Louisiana will be heard by the Supreme Court Monday, March 24, marking the latest chapter of a debate over alleged race-based gerrymandering that’s been going on since 2022. The decision will either eliminate or leave in place a congressional map that was used in the 2024 elections and includes two majority-Black districts

At the heart of the debate are two competing federal court decisions –– one that added a second majority-Black district to Louisiana’s congressional map in accordance with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), and another decision that deemed the newly-designated district to be racial gerrymandering in violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

Download the SAN app today to stay up-to-date with Unbiased. Straight Facts™.

Point phone camera here

The outcome will ultimately decide how much states can consider race when redrawing their legislative maps.

How did Louisiana get here?

The arguments in the case followed the 2020 Census when population changes prompted Louisiana to reexamine its six congressional districts. At the time, the legislative map included one majority-Black district while Black voters made up roughly one-third of the state’s electorate. The map was subsequently challenged by a group of civil rights advocates who cited Section 2 of the VRA, which mitigates the weakening of the Black vote.

That challenge was upheld by a federal court in Baton Rouge, as well as the 5^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that a second majority-Black district could reasonably be created to better reflect the state’s demographics.  

However, when a group of Louisiana residents describing themselves as “non-African-American voters” challenged the map, claiming it contravened the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, a panel of federal judges ruled 2-1 in their favor.

Reconciling competing court orders

Now, Louisiana is being forced to abide by two competing rulings that both call for a second majority-Black district and bar the state legislature from drawing one.

“What we’re looking at is the decision on how you draw districts to comply with the VRA and at the same time, not violate the 14th Amendment’s ban on drawing districts based on race, where race is used excessively,” Jeffrey Wice, a professor and expert in redistricting told CBS News.

According to Louisiana’s newly-drawn map, the sixth congressional district covers about 250 miles, bisecting the state from Shreveport in the northwest to Baton Rouge in the southeast. Communities along the route, from Shreveport and Alexandria to Lafayette and Baton Rouge, include majority-Black populations, thus strengthening their voting power.

However, the lines were also drawn to protect certain Republican seats, including those of House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Whip Steve Scalise and Rep. Julia Letlow. The 6th District’s Republican incumbent, Garret Graves, was all but sacrificed when Rep. Cleo Fields, a Black Democrat, won the 2024 election.

Get up to speed on the stories leading the day every weekday morning. Sign up for the newsletter today!

Learn more about our emails. Unsubscribe anytime.

Enter your email for newsletter updates Subscribe

By entering your email, you agree to the Terms & Conditions and acknowledge the Privacy Policy.

Supreme Court hears similar case in 2023

There is precedent for Louisiana’s case. In 2023, the Supreme Court decided against reshaping Section 2 of the VRA, and, in the process, tossed out a congressional map that had been redrawn by Alabama Republican lawmakers. That decision saw Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts join the bench’s three liberal justices in concluding that “color-blind” boundaries could not be used as a basis for redrawing congressional districts.

However, at the same time, Kavanaugh also said that “race-based redistricting cannot extend indefinitely into the future,” something the non-African American voters challenging Louisiana’s 6th District cited in their filings.  

Nevertheless, according to Wice, Louisiana’s case is unique because the state is trying to do three distinct things –– comply with two competing court orders, draw a second minority district that better represents the state’s population, and retain a congressional map that spares certain members of Congress from facing more competitive races in the future.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case by the end of June.