Supreme Court hears Louisiana racial gerrymandering claim
The Supreme Court hears an unusual case in which civil rights groups are in a tentative alliance with Republican officials in defending a Louisiana congressional map that includes two majority Black districts for the first time in decades.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday hears an unusual case in which civil rights groups are in a tentative alliance with Republican officials in defending a Louisiana congressional map that includes two majority Black districts for the first time in decades.
The justices took up an appeal brought by the state over its efforts to draw a map while being sued from the left and right about whether it appropriately considered race in doing so.
The case has a complicated history, resulting from an original map drawn by the Legislature after the 2020 census that included just one Black majority district out of the state's six districts. About a third of the state's population is Black.
Civil rights groups, including the Legal Defense Fund, sued and ultimately won, arguing that the Voting Rights Act required two majority Black districts.
That led to a new lawsuit filed by a group of self-identified "non-African American" voters led by Phillip Callais and 11 other plaintiffs who said the latest map, which is currently in effect, violated the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which requires that the law applies equally to everyone.
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