Supreme Court Blocks Lower Court Order to Redraw Louisiana Congressional Maps – Opinion

In an order dropped today by Justice Sam Alito, the Supreme Court has stopped a federal judge’s order for redrawn congressional maps.

The Court blocked a ruling by Obama-appointed judge Shelley Dick, in which she declared that Louisiana’s updated congressional maps must include a second majority-minority district. Louisiana’s legislature created a revised map to keep the state within one major-minority area. The current representative in Congress is Troy Carter.

BREAKING: #SCOTUSBlocks lower court order requiring reredistricting to Louisiana in order to add another majority-minority Congressional Seat. 3 lib justices dissent. The map is likely to remain in place through the 2022 election. Doc: https://t.co/aaIqq1jccY

— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) June 28, 2022

Dick’s ruling utilized an interpretation of the Voting Rights Act that demanded a second majority-minority district. Activist groups had argued that because the state is one-third African-American, then one-third of the state’s six congressional districts must be majority-minority.

According to the State Republicans, it was illegal for Congress to draw congressional districts in favor of one class or another under the Voting rights Act.

The order comes a day before Dick was set to release her own re-drawn map, an act that is likely now moot based on the Supreme Court’s ruling.