SCOTUS Rules for Congressional Map with 2 Black-Majority Districts

(NewsWorthy.news) – The United States Supreme Court has approved a new congressional map that would add two districts with a Black majority in Louisiana.

The decision, made on Wednesday May 15, was in response to an emergency request to overturn a previous version of the map. A group of GOP officials in the Bayou State collaborated with civil rights organizations to request the court to reverse a ruling from a lower court about the earlier version.

The new map, with its additional black majority district, could help Democrats win a congressional seat and come closer to controlling the House of Representatives, which is only slimly ruled by Republicans. Black voters generally favor Democratic candidates as opposed to the GOP.

The lower court’s rejection of the new map was overruled thanks to the liberal justices in the Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority of 6-3. According to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, one of the three whose votes contributed to the decision, Louisiana is still able to come up with a finalized version of the map that would take into account several legal issues that have been brought up amid the discussion.

Jackson also pointed out that voters face “little risk” of “confusion” since the map is being drawn up “this far out” from the election in November. Previously, the Supreme Court’s liberal members have pushed back against efforts to block district map revisions ahead of elections.

In Louisiana, the approved changes have seen considerable legal pressure. Originally, the state’s congressional map had one less district with a black majority. During the 2022 elections, the GOP claimed five out of the six districts in the Bayou State.

The Supreme Court’s approval of the new map comes one month after a federal court prevented the change from being used this year with a 2-1 vote. The decision kept Senate Bill 8 from being enacted, which stipulated the redistribution of the state’s districts to include one more black majority. At the time, the federal court stated that the map violated an equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment.