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Supreme Court Refuses to Intervene in Louisiana Electoral Map Battle

The state’s current electoral map has been deemed unfair to Black voters.

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t get involved in the fight to redraw a Louisiana electoral map deemed unfair to the state’s Black voters. The Thursday decision may delay the redrawing of the map, which could lead to a second majority African-American district in the state. None of the justices wrote dissenting opinions, but Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson penned a concurrence stating that she agreed with the court’s ruling. She also noted that a lower court in Louisiana is expected to redraw the map in time for the 2024 elections. In June 2022, a district court judge decided that under the Voting Rights Act, Louisiana’s congressional map should be redrawn with a second Black-majority district. The state only contained one Black-majority district out of six despite having a 33 percent Black population. But a federal appeals court canceled the district court’s hearing that would have discussed new maps, prompting civil rights groups to file emergency requests with the Supreme Court.