Supreme Court to resolve Louisiana gerrymander

Protesters for Black congressional representation protest in front of Supreme Court

Louisiana will use the map with two Black districts in the 2024 election

(Image credit: Shannon Finney / Getty Images for Rooted Logistics)

published 5 November 2024

What happened

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to adjudicate a long-running fight over Louisiana's 6th Congressional District, which one federal court ordered to be redrawn as a majority-Black district and a second federal court tried to undo. Black people make up about a third of Louisiana's population, but only one of its six House members is Black.

Louisiana's Republican-controlled Legislature created only one majority-Black congressional district after the 2020 Census, but a court found that the map "diluted the power of Black voters" and ordered it redrawn, Politico said. When the Legislature approved a second map in January with two majority-Black districts, a "group of self-described 'non-African American voters' sued," The Washington Post said, and a divided three-judge panel agreed the new map was "an unconstitutional racial gerrymander that violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution."

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Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) decided not to seek reelection in the new 6th District, and Democrats are hopeful their candidate Cleo Fields can flip the "once reliably Republican" seat in this "critical election year" where either party could win control of the House, The Associated Press said. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments "early next year" and issue its ruling in "late June or early July," SCOTUSblog said.

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.