Supreme Court to hear argument over Louisiana congressional districts on racial issues

(The Center Square) — Another round of ping-pong over Louisiana's congressional map is set to begin as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments over the years-long legal battle. The arguments will include the combined cases of Louisiana v. Callais and Robinson v. Callais.

Were the court to rule against the Pelican State, the game will begin again and the Legislature will be sent back to the drawing board.

The map being challenged was drawn in early 2024 as a compromise to provide Black voters with fair and constitutional representation.

That map, which includes a second Black-majority district, is being challenged on the same grounds as the map without a second Black-majority district: An unconstitutional, racial gerrymander in violation of the Voting Rights Act.

"The irony and hypocrisy is hard to miss," said Marina Jenkins, from the National Redistricting Foundation. "The Callais lawsuit was intentionally filed in one of the most conservative courts in the country, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, where five of the six active judges were appointed by Republican presidents."

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana has been on the other side of the debate and much more friendly to a second Black-majority district.

The court handed down a ruling that said "two majority-minority congressional districts that satisfy and respect traditional redistricting principles can be drawn in Louisiana."

When the Legislature failed to create that second majority-Black district in 2022, the court intervened and the Legislature was required to comply with a ruling.

The U.S. Supreme Court may finally put an end to it all. The court has previously ruled that race can be considered in redistricting as long as it does not predominate over traditional redistricting principles.

In the 2022 case Allen v. Milligan, the Court reaffirmed that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act explicitly allows race-conscious districting to prevent racial vote dilution, according to Marina Jenkins of the National Redistricting Foundation.

One key factor in the case is that politics, rather than race, was the primary driver of Louisiana's redistricting decisions. The Republican-controlled Legislature opted to craft a new map rather than allow the court to impose one.

According to Louisiana's brief, lawmakers considered seven different Voting Rights Act-compliant maps before settling on one that aligned with their political priorities — preserving the seats of Louisiana U.S. Reps. Julia Letlow and Speaker Mike Johnson. Former U.S. Rep. Garrett Graves, a Republican, declined to run for reelection after his district was redrawn into a Black-majority district.