The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Wednesday in a case originating in Louisiana, Louisiana v. Callais, centered around when and how legislatures should consider race when drawing congressional districts.
Here is a brief background on the case:
In 2022, the Louisiana state Legislature adopted a map that featured a single Black-majority district out of six allotted to the state. A group of Black voters challenged the map in federal court, arguing that it diluted their votes.
Black voters in Louisiana make up about one-third of the state’s population, and the voters who sued said the state violated the federal Voting Rights Act that prohibits using race as a factor when establishing voting practices.
A federal district court ultimately ruled that the Legislature’s congressional maps had violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and barred the maps from being used in future elections. The court also directed the state lawmakers to create a new map, this time with an additional second majority-Black district.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld that ruling.
New map brings new legal drama
After the new map, known as S.B. 8, was released in 2024, a separate group of Louisiana voters accused it of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering and alleged that it violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
A three-judge district court agreed with the plaintiffs and prohibited the maps from being used in congressional elections.
But in May 2024, the Supreme Court paused the lower courts’ ruling and allowed the map to be used by the state.
The state and the Black voters who brought the case to court in 2022 appealed the three-judge decision to the Supreme Court, which then set oral arguments.
The Trump White House filed a brief, asking the Supreme Court to uphold the latest district court decision.
Ahead of oral arguments, the justices last August requested both parties to publish new briefs addressing “whether the state’s intentional creation of a second majority-minority congressional district violates the 14th or 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.”
Louisiana v. Callais will be the first case argued before the Supreme Court on Wednesday at 8 a.m. MDT.