Justices to hear fight over Louisiana congressional districts
By: John Kruzel
Reuters
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday [11/04/2024] to hear a bid by Louisiana officials and civil rights groups to preserve an electoral map that raised the number of Black-majority congressional districts in the state in a legal challenge by a group who called themselves "non-African American."
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The justices took up appeals of a decision by a panel of three federal judges that found that the map laying out Louisiana's six House of Representatives districts - with two Black-majority districts, up from one previously - likely violated the U.S. Constitution's promise of equal protection. The Supreme Court in May [2024] allowed the map to be used in Tuesday's [11/05/2024] election that will decide control of the House. Its decision to hear the appeal does not chance that. The court is expected it hear arguments and issue a decision by the end of June. [2025]
..... Stuart Naifeh, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, one of the civil rights groups involved in the case, said, "We look forward to continuing to defend the rights of Black voters to elect their candidates of choice in the Supreme Court."
..... The boundaries of legislative districts across the country are redraw to reflect population changes every decade. The Louisiana case is the latest in a series of legal disputes over racial issues arising during this process.
..... The Republican-controlled Louisiana Legislature approved the map in January [2024] after U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick in 2022 ruled that a map it previously had adopted contained only a single Black-majority congressional district in the state unlawfully harmed Black voters.
..... Dick concluded that this previous map likely violate the Voting Rights Act, a landmark 1965 U.S> law that bars racial discrimination in voting. Black people comprise nearly a third of Louisiana's population. The Supreme Court in 2023 left Dick's ruling in place.
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In January, [2024] 12 Louisiana voters identifying themselves in court papers as "non-African American" used to block the redrawn map in Louisiana. A lawyer for the plaintiffs did not respond to a request to provide the racial breakdown of the plaintiffs.
..... The three-judge panel in a 3-1 ruling on April 30 [2024] temporarily blocked the map as an unlawful "racial gerrymander." The panel decided that the manner in which the districts were drawn likely violated the Constitution 14th Amendment equal protection provision because race had been the legislature's predominant consideration in the map's design. The judicial panel sided with the plaintiffs who claimed the disputed map unlawfully reduced the influence of these non-Black voters.
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Blake voters tend to support Democratic candidates.
..... The panel had directed Louisiana's legislature to devise a new map by June 3, [2024] though The Supreme Court stepped in to allow the disputed map to be sued in the 2024 election.
..... The Supreme Court in May [2024] made it harder to prove racial discrimination in electoral maps in a major ruling backing South Carolina Republicans who moved out 30,000 Black residents, when that redrew a U.S. House district.