The Supreme Court on Monday took a step toward forcing Louisiana to redraw its House map, a move expected after the court ruled against Alabama’s congressional map earlier this month.
The high court, which found that Alabama’s map likely violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the power of Black voters, declined to hear a challenge to a lower court ruling forcing Louisiana to redraw its map.
The Supreme Court ordered the Louisiana case down to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which is bound by the ruling in the Alabama case.
Last year, Republicans in the Louisiana Legislature approved a House map that did not give Black voters a majority in any of the state’s six House districts.
About 33% of Louisiana’s population is Black, according to the census.
The map was rejected by a federal court judge who found it in violation of the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court reinstated the districts pending an appeal, and the map was used in last year’s midterm elections.
But the high court’s ruling in the Alabama case, Allen v. Milligan, appeared to sound the death knell of Louisiana’s congressional map.
The Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 decision in the Alabama case — considered a surprise by court watchers — bolstered the power of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and left Alabama lawmakers to redraw Alabama’s map.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, two conservatives, joined the court’s three-member liberal wing — Justices Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor — to make up the majority.
Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch dissented in the case.
There were no noted dissents in the Monday order on the Louisiana map.
The order suggested the matter must be resolved “in advance of the 2024 congressional elections in Louisiana.”
