(The Center Square) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a request from civil rights plaintiffs to recall its judgment in Louisiana v. Callais, leaving in place the court’s decision striking down Louisiana’s congressional map.
In a brief order dated May 6, the court denied the motion filed by Press Robinson and other plaintiffs. The order comes days after the court moved quickly to finalize its ruling in the case, clearing the way for lower courts and state officials to act without waiting for the usual period in which parties may seek rehearing.
The decision keeps pressure on Louisiana lawmakers as they prepare to redraw the state’s congressional districts following the high court’s ruling that the state’s current map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Lawmakers will meet on Friday to begin discussing a new map.
The Supreme Court ruled April 29 that Louisiana’s map, which created two majority-Black congressional districts, relied too heavily on race. The map had been passed after years of litigation over whether Louisiana’s earlier congressional plan violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by including only one majority-Black district in a state where Black residents make up roughly one-third of the population.
The case placed Louisiana between competing legal commands. A separate federal court had previously found the state likely needed a second majority-Black district to comply with the Voting Rights Act. But challengers in Callais argued the Legislature’s replacement map went too far in using race as the dominant factor in drawing district lines.
The Supreme Court sided with those challengers, invalidating the two-majority-Black-district map and sending the case back to the lower court. The ruling immediately disrupted Louisiana’s election calendar. Gov. Jeff Landry suspended the state’s congressional primaries, which had been scheduled for May 16, after state officials said Louisiana could no longer conduct elections under the invalidated map.
