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Supreme Court Rehears Louisiana Redistricting Case Testing Race and the Voting Rights Act

The outcome could narrow or dismantle Section 2, reshaping minority representation nationwide.

FILE - The Supreme Court is seen in the distance, framed through columns of the U.S. Senate at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Students and a member of the Zulu Tramps march to a campus polling place on Election Day at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE - President Lyndon Johnson, at podium, speaks in the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, before to signing the Voting Rights Act, Aug. 6, 1965. (AP Photo, File)
The Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge, shown April 4, 2023. Lawmakers redrew the state’s congressional map in early 2024 to add a second majority-Black district—legislation now at the center of Callais v. Landry, a Supreme Court case challenging the map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. (AP Photo/Stephen Smith, File)

Overview

  • Justices hear arguments Oct. 15 on whether Louisiana’s intentional creation of a second majority‑minority district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments and whether race‑conscious line‑drawing is permissible.
  • Louisiana reversed course to argue that race‑based redistricting is unconstitutional and urged strict limits on Section 2, with the Trump administration’s Justice Department filing in support.
  • A federal judge in 2022 found the state’s original map likely diluted Black voting power, the legislature drew a second majority‑Black district in 2024, and a three‑judge panel later ruled 2–1 that the remedy relied too heavily on race.
  • Analysts and advocacy reports warn that curtailing Section 2 could eliminate many minority‑opportunity districts, potentially shifting up to 19 U.S. House seats and reducing Black and Hispanic caucus membership.
  • The case returns for a rare reargument before a 6–3 conservative Court, with observers viewing Justice Brett Kavanaugh as pivotal and a ruling expected by the end of June.