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NBC News
01-08-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Supreme Court raises the stakes in a Louisiana redistricting case
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday expanded the scope of a Louisiana congressional redistricting dispute that has been pending for months by ordering new briefing on a legal question that could further weaken the landmark Voting Rights Act. The court issued an order asking the lawyers to address whether, in seeking to comply with the 1965 law that protects minority voting rights, Louisiana violated the Constitution's 14th and 15th Amendments enacted after the Civil War to ensure Black people were treated equally under the law. If the court rules that the state did violate the Constitution, it would mean states cannot cite the need to comply with the Voting Rights Act if they use race as a consideration during the map-drawing process, as they currently can. Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the UCLA School of Law. wrote on his Election Law Blog that the order "appears to put the constitutionality of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act into question." That provision bars voting practices or rules that discriminate against minority groups. The Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority is often receptive to arguments that the Constitution is 'colorblind,' meaning no consideration of race can ever be lawful even if it is aimed at remedying past discrimination. In 2013, the court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in a case from Alabama and further weakened it in a 2021 case from Arizona. The justices heard arguments in the Louisiana case on more technical, less contentious questions in March and was originally expected to issue a ruling by the end of June. Even then, the constitutional issue loomed large. The new order did not indicate whether the court will hear another round of arguments before it issues a ruling in the case. The Louisiana map in question, which is currently in effect, includes two majority Black districts for the first time in years. The complicated case arose from litigation over an earlier map drawn by the state legislature after the 2020 census that included just one Black majority district out of the state's six districts. About a third of the state's population is Black. Civil rights groups, including the Legal Defense Fund, won a legal challenge, arguing that the Voting Rights Act required two majority Black districts. But after the new map was drawn, a group of self-identified 'non-African American' voters led by Phillip Callais and 11 other plaintiffs filed another lawsuit, saying the latest map violated the 14th Amendment. As recently as 2023, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the Voting Rights Act in a congressional redistricting case arising from Alabama. But conservatives raised questions about whether key elements of the law should ultimately be struck down.
NBC News
24-03-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Supreme Court hears Louisiana racial gerrymandering claim
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday hears an unusual case in which civil rights groups are in a tentative alliance with Republican officials in defending a Louisiana congressional map that includes two majority Black districts for the first time in decades. The justices took up an appeal brought by the state over its efforts to draw a map while being sued from the left and right about whether it appropriately considered race in doing so. The case has a complicated history, resulting from an original map drawn by the Legislature after the 2020 census that included just one Black majority district out of the state's six districts. About a third of the state's population is Black. Civil rights groups, including the Legal Defense Fund, sued and ultimately won, arguing that the Voting Rights Act required two majority Black districts. That led to a new lawsuit filed by a group of self-identified "non-African American" voters led by Phillip Callais and 11 other plaintiffs who said the latest map, which is currently in effect, violated the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which requires that the law applies equally to everyone. A federal court struck the new map down, but the state successfully asked the Supreme Court to block the ruling last year, meaning the map was used in November's election. Rep. Cleo Fields, D-La., ultimately won the newly drawn district. Now, the Supreme Court will decide whether the 2024 map can remain in place, weighing several legal questions, including whether the plaintiffs who sued even had standing to do so. The court could also go further and delve into the fraught question of to what extent the Voting Rights Act, which requires the consideration of race when drawing districts, is in tension with the 14th Amendment, which conservatives say bars any consideration of race in government decisions. Although state officials are defending the new map, they also said in court filings that the court should consider barring such lawsuits altogether as "non-justiciable," meaning they are so inherently political that the issue should be left to the political branches. Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguiñaga wrote that currently the state is being sued no matter what it does, causing it to spend millions of dollars on legal expenses. "No one truly wins that fight — the state loses, its voters lose, the judiciary loses, and democracy itself loses," he wrote. The challengers said in court papers that the new map constitutes an "odious racial gerrymander." None of the state's reasons constitute a "compelling justification for violating the 14th Amendment," they added. Meanwhile, the civil rights groups that originally sued urged the court to uphold the new map, pointing out that in drawing it, the state relied in part on partisan political considerations aimed at protecting incumbent Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, of Louisiana. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority that is often receptive to conservative claims that the Constitution is "colorblind," meaning no consideration of race can ever be lawful even if it is aimed at remedying past discrimination. But in an unexpected move, the court in 2023 reaffirmed the Voting Rights Act in another congressional redistricting case arising from Alabama.
