WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday paved the way for Louisiana to use a congressional map in this year’s election that includes two majority-Black districts.
The court granted emergency requests filed by an unlikely alliance of Republican state officials and civil rights groups, who were united in asking the high court to block a lower court ruling that invalidated the most recently drawn map. State officials had said they needed to have the map finalized by Wednesday to meet bureaucratic deadlines and avoid “disarray.”
Black voters have historically voted for Democrats, and a map with two majority-Black districts could give them an opportunity to pick up a seat, which could help them regain control of the closely divided House of Representatives.
The court’s three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson writing that the state still had time to draw a map that would address the various legal questions that have been raised. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority.
“There is little risk of voter confusion from a new map being imposed this far out from the November election,” Jackson wrote.
The liberal justices have objected in previous cases when the court has acted to block changes to district maps or election laws in an election year, often in ways that benefited Republicans.
Internal divisions on that issue flared in 2022 when the court blocked a ruling that invalidated a congressional district map in Alabama.
Then, conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh defended the move, saying it was a “bedrock tenet” of election law that “the rules of the road must be clear and settled in an election year.”
The majority did not explain in detail its reasoning in Wednesday’s decision.
Louisiana’s map has been the subject of intense litigation, with the state’s original effort ruled to be a racial gerrymander. Using the Legislature’s original map, Republicans won five of the six districts in the 2022 elections.
That map was subsequently redrawn…
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