The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed Louisiana to proceed using a House map that includes a second predominantly Black district for the 2024 congressional elections, despite a lower-court ruling that had deemed the map an illegal racial gerrymander.
This order allows the map to include majority Black populations in two of Louisiana's six congressional districts, potentially increasing the Democrats' chances of winning control of the narrowly divided House of Representatives in the 2024 elections.
The justices acted on emergency appeals from the state’s top Republican elected officials and Black voters, who argued that the high court's intervention was necessary to prevent confusion as the elections approach. Approximately one-third of Louisiana's population is Black.
The Supreme Court’s order does not address the lower court's ruling that the map relied excessively on race. Instead, it only prevents the creation of a new map for the upcoming elections.
The court’s three liberal justices dissented from Wednesday’s order, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson arguing that the judges who invalidated the latest map should have been given the opportunity to create a new map before the Supreme Court stepped in.
