The Supreme Court agreed Monday evening to immediately send its opinion striking down Louisiana’s congressional map to lower courts, rather than waiting 32 days, as would have been routine.
The court’s landmark opinion last week, which weakened the Voting Rights Act by concluding that one of Louisiana’s majority-Black congressional districts was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, has set off a chaotic scramble in the state.
Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, delayed the primary for the House races, even with early voting beginning on Saturday, so that the state Legislature could immediately work to redraw the maps. Republicans, who control the Legislature, are expected to try to eliminate at least one of the state’s two majority-Black districts. (Early voting in other races in the state, including votes on constitutional amendments and a hotly contested Republican Senate primary, proceeded.)
It was not immediately clear what impact Monday’s decision to send the case back to lower courts without delay would have on the effort to speed up redistricting. Those steps have been challenged in court.
But a group of white voters challenged the Louisiana map and won their case before the Supreme Court. the requested The move comes with the belief that technological moves will make it easier to move forward faster, and that the court action removes a barrier to creating a new map.
one in a paragraphIn the unsigned order, the court explained that “normally,” Supreme Court clerks wait 32 days to send an opinion, to give the losing party time to ask the justices to reconsider the case. it is exceptionally rare Once arguments and decisions have been made, the court agrees to rehear a case.
In the Louisiana case, the judges wrote, state officials who defended the map were on the losing side of the case. did not protest Request to expedite.
Although a group of black voters intervened in the matter expressed his oppositionThose voters “expressed no intention” to ask the court to use the 32-day period to reconsider their decision, the judges wrote.
In a sharp dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, one of the court’s three liberals and the first Black woman to serve on the court, asserted that the court’s decision to overturn Louisiana’s voting map has “created chaos” in the state.
He described the court’s decision to speed up the opinion’s broadcast as “tantamount to approving Louisiana’s rush to stop an ongoing election in order to pass a new map.” He said the court was entering the political arena without thinking, which was “inappropriate and unwise”.
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One of the court’s conservatives, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. responded in unusually sharply worded agreement. Justice Jackson’s position, he wrote, “would require that the 2026 congressional elections in Louisiana be held under a map that has been ruled unconstitutional.” He was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch, both conservatives.
Justice Alito called Justice Jackson’s claim “a baseless and completely irresponsible allegation” that the Court is improperly using its power.
The decision was the latest step in a race to draw new midterm maps across the South following the court’s landmark ruling on April 29 that gutted the remaining pillar of the Voting Rights Act.
The court’s decision in the case Louisiana v. Calais found that the state map, which created the second majority-black district, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.
The decision could make it harder for lawmakers to draw majority-minority districts across the country and set off a redistricting race in states across the South ahead of the midterm elections. In some states, absentee ballots had already been requested.
The Louisiana Legislature was already in session when the decision came. Two Republican-led states in the South — Alabama and Tennessee — are calling special legislative sessions this week, aiming to take action ahead of their primaries. Alabama, which began the session on Monday, is delaying some of its primaries in hopes that the Supreme Court will pave the way for them to draw a new map.
In Tennessee, where a legislative session is set to begin Tuesday, the Republican supermajority is widely expected to approve a map that would eliminate her only majority-Black district. The seat is currently held by Democrat Representative Steve Cohen. Legislative leaders have not yet shared their proposals publicly.
