The Supreme Court recently ruled to uphold the redrawing of Louisiana’s congressional map to include two majority-Black districts.
Announced on Wednesday, the decision was made with a 6-to-3 vote to apply just to the 2024 elections. Responding to an emergency appeal, the ruling was reportedly made to provide some clarity going into the upcoming elections.
Three of the liberal-leaning justices, including Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, reportedly dissented the decision; per the Washington Post, Justice Jackson wrote in her dissent that she would’ve had the District Court continue their process before the Supreme Court became involved. She also said that there was more time for the Court to announce its decision as the right map was being constructed.
Civil rights activists, however, celebrated the ruling, with the new map projected to impact Republican control over the House. With the second-majority Black district now included in the map, Rep. Gerret Graves’s role in the district may be impacted.
BREAKING: The Supreme Court granted an emergency stay, keeping Louisiana’s congressional map with two majority-Black districts in effect for the 2024 election. Louisiana’s previous map with only one majority-Black district violated the Voting Rights Act.
— ACLU (@ACLU) May 15, 2024
This is a victory for…
“Today’s Supreme Court action ensures that Black voters’ voices will not be silenced during this year’s critical elections,” said Legal Defense Fund fellow Sara Rohani in a statement.“The Voting Rights Act requires Louisiana to have a map where Black voters have a fair opportunity to elect candidates of choice. While this is not the end of our work to defend that principle, it is a critical moment in our fight for fair maps in Louisiana and reflects the strength of our democracy.”
The ruling comes nearly two years after the state’s maps were first brought to the court’s attention. In 2022, Chief Judge Shelly Dick claimed that Louisiana’s drawings of districts were a form racial gerrymander. Declared to be illegal in the 1995 case “Miller v. Johnson,” gerrymandering refers to practicing voter suppression by decreasing the voting power of BIPOC citizens.
Per the Chief Judge, the map incorrectly represents the state as only one of the six congressional districts were previously majority-Black. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, overall, approximately 4.6 million people currently live in the state of Louisiana. Black citizens make up approximately one-third of the population as 1.4 million of the people living in the state.
With the latest decision by the Supreme Court, members of civil rights groups are claiming they’re one step closer to fairer maps.
“Today, we celebrate our communities’ opportunity to have a voice in this year’s elections, that can lead to the representation we need to make positive change in the years ahead,” said the president of the NAACP Louisiana State Conference, Michael McClanahan. “This is a day for hope.”
