Supreme Court weighs race-based redistricting in Louisiana v. Callais

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Wednesday in Louisiana v. Callais, a high-stakes challenge to a 2024 congressional map that created a second majority-Black district. The case, returning to the court after earlier argument in March, asks whether the deliberate creation of that district to remedy earlier racial vote dilution violates the Constitution’s equal protection and voting-rights provisions.

The dispute traces to 2022, when Louisiana drew a congressional map with one majority-Black district among six U.S. House seats, despite Black residents comprising roughly one third of the state population. Twelve Black voters sued under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which bars voting practices that deny or abridge the right to vote on account of race. A federal district judge found the 2022 map likely violated Section 2, ordered a new plan with a second majority-Black district, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed that ruling.

In 2024 the state legislature adopted a new map, S.B. 8, that included a second majority-Black district. That change prompted a separate lawsuit by a group of non-African American voters who argued the 2024 map was...