On June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court put a temporary hold on a lower court’s order for Louisiana to create a second majority Black congressional district.
This ruling paused the lower court’s decision that the current Louisiana map violates the Voting Rights Act.
The justices paused the creation of new voting districts in Louisiana until the Supreme Court rules on a related redistricting case about Alabama’s new congressional map next term. This means that both in Louisiana and Alabama, elections this year will take place with maps that lower courts have determined will hurt the voting power of Black voters.
The district maps at the center of this case were drawn in a special session of the Louisiana State Legislature earlier this year to account for population changes found in the 2020 census. While Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed the maps, his veto was overridden by the legislature.
With these district maps, Louisiana currently only has one majority Black congressional district, despite the fact that 32.4% of the state’s population is Black.
The Congressional Black Caucus argues that given Louisiana’s demographics, at a minimum two of the state’s six districts should have Black majorities.
“Black Louisianans make up one third of our population, and one third of our districts should be majority Black when such a map can be drawn, and, as has been clearly demonstrated, that map is more compact, better adheres to the legal principles governing redistricting, and will perform,” said Gov. Edwards.