Supreme Court agrees to review Louisiana's congressional map that favors Democrats

CNN
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The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal over Louisiana's more Democratic-friendly congressional districts, although the case will not impact this year's election.

The dispute over how the state should be divided into six congressional districts has been going on for years and has repeatedly ended up in the Supreme Court. The current map, created after court orders found the original version weakened the power of black voters, includes two majority-black districts.

The decision, expected next year, could have significant implications for other states because it may shed light on how far lawmakers can go to consider voters' race under the Constitution when trying to set boundaries that are consistent with the Voting Rights Act.

Louisiana told the Supreme Court it was engaged in an “endless game of ping-pong.” His first map after the 2020 census was invalidated by federal courts because the state included only a single majority-black county, even though black residents make up about a third of Louisiana's population. When the map was redesigned to include two majority-black districts, a group of “non-African-American” plaintiffs, including a number of prominent white Republicans, sued the state over what they said was an overreliance on race. A special three-judge district court ruled in their favor.

Basically, the current map gives Louisiana Democrats the opportunity to add a second member to their delegation this year. More broadly, the case has been closely watched by civil rights groups and election experts for its potential nationwide impact.

The fight implicates much deeper controversies that could extend beyond the Bayou State, including how the Supreme Court handles similar redistricting cases and how state mapmakers should think about race as they also try to accrue political advantage within each district's borders achieve.

The new district at issue in this case runs about 250 miles diagonally from Shreveport in the northwest part of the state to Baton Rouge in the southeast, to create a district where black residents make up about 54% of the electorate, up from about 24 % among voters old lines.

Louisiana's map was submitted to the Supreme Court earlier this year as part of its emergency act in May, when the court allowed the districts to be used in the November election.