US Supreme Court allows Louisiana voting map with two Black-majority
districts
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[May 16, 2024]
By John Kruzel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court restored a Louisiana
electoral map that has two of the state's six congressional districts
with Black-majority populations for use in the Nov. 5 election - a
ruling on Wednesday with potential implications for which party will
control the U.S. House of Representatives.
The justices granted a request by state officials and a group of Black
voters to temporarily halt a federal three-judge panel's decision
throwing out Louisiana's newly redrawn map that includes two
Black-majority U.S. House districts, rather than the one present in a
previous version. Black voters tend to support Democratic candidates.
The judicial panel on April 30 had ruled 2-1 that the map was chiefly
influenced by race in violation of the U.S. Constitution's 14th
Amendment guarantee of equal protection, and ordered that a new map be
drawn.
The panel's decision was the latest development in a long-running legal
fight over the boundaries of Louisiana's U.S. House districts.
Republicans hold a 217-213 margin in the House. Ongoing legal battles
over redistricting in several states could be enough to determine
whether Republicans retain control or Democrats regain a majority.
The Republican-controlled Louisiana legislature approved the new map in
January adding a second Black-majority district after U.S. District
Judge Shelly Dick in 2022 found that the previous Republican-drawn map
illegally harmed Black voters. Dick concluded that the previous map
devised by the state legislature likely violated the Voting Rights Act,
a landmark 1965 U.S. law that bars racial discrimination in voting.
The Supreme Court in 2023 left Dick's ruling in place.
Under the map rejected by Dick, Black voters had constituted a majority
in only one of the state's six districts, despite comprising nearly a
third of Louisiana's population.
In January, a group of Louisiana voters identifying as "non-African
American" challenged the redrawn map. The challengers argued that it was
an unconstitutional "racial gerrymander" that violated the 14th
Amendment equal protection guarantee, which prohibits states from using
race as the predominant factor in drawing electoral districts.
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People line up to cast their ballot for the upcoming presidential
election as early voting ends in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.,
October 27, 2020. REUTERS/Kathleen Flynn/File Photo
The amendment, ratified in 1868 in the aftermath of the American
Civil War, addressed issues relating to the rights of formerly
enslaved Black people.
Ruling in favor of the challengers, the judicial panel ordered
Louisiana's legislature to produce a new map by June 3. Failing
that, the panel could have imposed its own map, one which would not
necessarily have included a second majority-Black district,
according to legal experts.
Two judges appointed by Republican former President Donald Trump
were in the majority in the panel's ruling, with a judge appointed
by Democratic former President Bill Clinton dissenting.
That ruling prompted state officials, as well as Black Louisiana
voters backed by civil rights groups, to ask the Supreme Court to
temporarily halt the decision while they pursue a formal appeal.
Louisiana's Republican Secretary of State Nancy Landry in court
filings said that in order to "accurately administer the
congressional election" she needed a map in place by Wednesday.
The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Its three liberal
justices dissented from Wednesday's decision. Justice Ketanji Brown
Jackson wrote that the Supreme Court's intervention - under a
precedent aimed at preventing voter confusion caused by judicial
decisions that change rules near an election - was not necessary
this far ahead of Nov. 5.
"There is little risk of voter confusion from a new map being
imposed this far out from the November election," Jackson wrote. "In
fact, we have often denied stays of redistricting orders issued as
close or closer to an election."
(Reporting by John Kruzel; Additional reporting by Andrew Chung in
New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
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