SCOTUS Will Rehear Louisiana Redistricting Case Next Term, Signaling Major Ruling to Come

In a surprise move, the U.S. Supreme Court postponed until next term a decision in a high-stakes Louisiana redistricting case that could have major implications for the future of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). 

The move suggests the majority may want to make a sweeping ruling that could significantly weaken what’s left of the VRA’s power to stop racial discrimination in voting.

Rather than issuing a ruling, the court on Friday determined it “will issue an order scheduling argument and specifying any additional questions to be addressed in supplemental briefing.”

The court did not say how many justices had agreed with the move. However, Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, arguing the court has “an obligation to resolve such challenges promptly.” 

Thomas wrote that the case highlights the “intractable conflict” between the court’s interpretation of Section 2 of the VRA and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. He added that the Constitution is “supreme” over the VRA – indicating his support for gutting the provisions that protect minorities from racial gerrymandering — and possibly foreshadowing the position the court will take when it rehears the case.

The case stems from a lawsuit over a new congressional map that Louisiana enacted in 2024, following a court order that required the state to draw a second majority-Black district. 

The legal battle over the Pelican State’s map started back in 2021, when lawmakers started the once-a-decade process of redrawing state and congressional maps based on the latest census data.

That year, the state’s GOP-majority legislature passed a map that ultimately a federal court struck down for discriminating against Black voters. A new map was drawn with a second majority-Black district to comply with the VRA. 

The court order that led to the new, VRA-compliant map was due, in part, to the Supreme Court’s pivotal 2023 ruling in Allen v. Milligan, which affirmed Section 2.

But almost immediately after Louisiana’s new map passed, a group identifying themselves as “non-African-American voters” sued to stop it, arguing the new majority-Black district created a racial gerrymander, in violation of the 14th and 15th Amendments. A federal district court agreed and struck down the new map last April, ordering the legislature to draw a new one.

Last year, before the 2024 election, the state asked SCOTUS to pause the district court’s ruling and allow Louisiana to keep its new map with two majority-Black districts in place —  at least until after the election, when SCOTUS can hear the case and make its decision on the maps.

In defending Louisiana’s new map, the state argued that race wasn’t the predominant factor for drawing new districts. The new map, the state said, was drawn to comply with the federal court order and to protect the seats held by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), and House  Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.).