handed down
SCOTUS reinstates Louisiana electoral map flagged for possible Voting Rights Act violations
The Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated a congressional voting map in Louisiana that a judge had previously blocked for likely discriminating against Black voters.
A lower court had found that the Republican-drawn map of the state's six House districts "diluted the power of Black voters," The New York Times writes, and thus likely violated the Voting Rights Act. All three of the Supreme Court's liberal justices dissented from Tuesday's "shadow docket" order, which "included no reasoning, blocked the judge's order, and granted a petition seeking review in the case," the Times notes.
The high court paused the drawing of a new district in Louisiana until it decides a similar case out of Alabama. Arguments in that case are scheduled for Oct. 4, Reuters reports. The Louisiana congressional map in question will now remain in place for the next election.
The judge who issued the injunction in the Louisiana case had ordered the state legislature to add a second majority-Black district to its map. The state then asked the Supreme Court to step in and freeze the lower court's opinion.