Louisiana’s New Congressional Map—With More Black Districts—Considered by U.S. Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court will determine whether the new map will be officially implemented.

The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing whether to uphold Louisiana’s congressional map, which was used in the 2024 elections and features two majority-Black districts.

Reuters reports that the court heard arguments March 24 from Louisiana officials and civil rights groups following an appeal of a 2024 lower court ruling, which found that the map outlining Louisiana’s six U.S. House districts violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. The dispute centers on the balance between protecting minority voting rights and upholding the principle of equal protection, which restricts the use of race in redistricting.

Black people comprise nearly a third of Louisiana’s population and generally support Democratic candidates. During the hearing, Louisiana officials argued that the state’s Republican-controlled legislature did not draw the map with race as the primary factor. The state said the map was also designed to protect Republican incumbents who represent Louisiana districts, such as House Speaker Mike Johnson and No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise.

“In an election year, we faced the prospect of a federal court-drawn map that placed in jeopardy the speaker of the House, the House majority leader, and our representative on the Appropriations Committee,” Benjamin Aguinaga, solicitor general of Louisiana, told the justices. “And so in light of those facts, we made the politically rational decision. We drew our own map to protect them.”

The dispute is the latest in a series of cases in the high court involving claims of racial gerrymandering and the drawing of political districts after redrawing voting boundaries following the census. In January 2024, the state legislature approved a new map that included two Black-majority districts.

Later that month, 12 Louisiana voters identifying themselves as “non-African American” filed a lawsuit to block the redrawn map, arguing that the state placed too much emphasis on race when creating a second majority-Black district in the congressional map.

In April 2024, a three-judge panel ruled 2-1 to block the map, stating that the legislature had relied too heavily on race in its design, violating the Constitution’s equal protection clause. The Supreme Court allowed the map to be used in the 2024 election. A ruling is expected on the matter by the end of June.