The US Supreme Courtroom will hear arguments in a case involving Louisiana’s congressional district map with two Black-majority districts within the six-district state, in line with an order issued Monday. Events nonetheless await a date for oral arguments.
The announcement marks the newest improvement for the state’s controversially drawn map. The court docket will hear arguments from two circumstances consolidated into one. Plaintiffs argue the map violates part 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VMA), which prohibits denial or abridgment of the fitting to vote based mostly on race. The plaintiff’s district court docket grievance learn, “[f]rom begin to end the State’s objective was clear: segregate voters based mostly fully on their races and create two majority-African American voting districts and 4 majority non-African American districts, with out regard for any conventional redistricting standards.”
The Louisiana legislature created the present map in early 2024 after the court docket effectively shot down the earlier map in late 2023. In Could, the court docket ordered the map be used for the 2024 election, supplanting a February district court docket ruling that will have required state officers to redraw it as soon as once more six months out from November 5.
The earlier Louisiana congressional map was struck down on comparable grounds. In that case, a district court docket dominated that the map violated Part 2 as a result of it created just one Black-majority district, regardless of Blacks making up round 30 p.c of the state’s inhabitants. Black activists and civil rights teams challenged the map and in the end gained, claiming it violated the VMA and the Structure.
The current map makes use of state geography and demographics in an identical method, however now the map options two Black-majority districts. Following the drawing of the map, a gaggle of white voters filed suit, claiming the map was a racial gerrymander within the different course.
Source / Picture: jurist.org
