The Supreme Court hears the racial dispute in Louisiana

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide a thorny lawsuit from Louisiana involving the state's efforts to create a congressional district map while navigating it, claiming it takes into account illegal the race.

The case has no immediate impact on this year's election in the state, which uses a map that includes two of six majority-black counties.

In the course of creating a map based on 2020 census data, the Republican-led state was sued from two directions.

One lawsuit alleged that the state had to draw a map with two majority-black counties to comply with federal Voting Rights Act. But after that case was resolved with a victory for civil rights plaintiffs, the state's new map designed to comply with that finding was challenged by a group of “non-African American” voters who said it violated the 14th Amendment by discriminating against them .

A federal court rejected the new map, but with time running out to draw congressional districts before this year's election, state officials successfully asked the Supreme Court in May to put the lower court's decision on hold.

In the latest case, the state's Republican leadership has unlikely allies in the form of the civil rights plaintiffs who originally sued to ensure a second majority black district.

Louisiana Attorney General Benjamin Aguiñaga wrote in court papers that the state is “stuck in an endless game of ping-pong” that needs to be resolved. If not, “the state will be sued again no matter what it does,” he added.

The state argues in part that it should have leeway to draw districts based on partisan politics to protect incumbents, which includes Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.

If left uncorrected, the panel's decision will further involve the federal courts in the redistricting process and deprive states of necessary flexibility to consider other legislative priorities when taking action to address identified violations.

The Legal Defense Fund, a civil rights group that challenged the original map, is supporting the state, with lawyers writing in a separate filing that the lower court's decision, if left in effect, “will further involve the federal courts in the redistricting process.” “depriving states of the flexibility necessary to consider other legislative priorities when taking action to address identified violations.”

Lawyers for Phillip Callais and 11 other plaintiffs said in their lawsuit that the state “should be ashamed” if it uses race to draw district lines in a way that “overrepresents Black voters” and could lead to the Republicans lose their majority in the House of Representatives.

The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority that, in a surprise move, upheld the federal voting rights law in 2023 in another racial discrimination case involving Alabama's congressional map.

The court will hear oral arguments and issue a ruling in the Louisiana case during its current term, which ends in June.