The Supreme Court issued an order Tuesday reinstating Louisiana’s congressional map, meaning the state will hold the 2022 elections under district lines a federal judge had struck down for violating the Voting Rights Act.
The decision from the high court resets the map, for at least the 2022 election, to one Republican legislators drew earlier this year.
District Court Judge Shelly Dick, a Barack Obama appointee, ruled earlier this month that the map likely violated the VRA. Under the map lines, one of the state’s six districts is majority Black, even though approximately one-third of the state’s population is Black. Republicans have a 5-1 advantage in Louisiana’s congressional delegation, with Democratic Rep. Troy Carter representing the one majority-Black seat. Dick had ordered the Louisiana legislature to redraw the map with a second heavily Black district.
