Black Louisiana voters and civil rights advocates call for a fair congressional map in Louisiana v. Callais at the Supreme Court on March 24, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Legal Defense Fund)
During oral arguments, the justices focused closely on whether Louisiana's redistricting efforts were narrowly tailored enough to meet constitutional requirements and whether race was used in a way that violates the law, as plaintiffs have alleged.
Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguiñaga argued that the state's latest map protected political stability, including preserving leadership positions like the U.S. House speaker and majority leader.
"I want to emphasize that the larger picture here is important – because in an election year we faced the prospect of a federal court-drawn map that placed in jeopardy the speaker of the House, the House majority leader and our representative on the Appropriations Committee," Aguiñaga said. "And so in light of those facts, we made the politically rational decision: we drew our own map to protect them."
Louisiana's congressional map has twice been challenged in federal court since it was updated in the wake of the 2020 census, which found that the state's Black residents now totaled one-third of Louisiana's total population.
The first redistricting map, which included just one district where Black voters held the majority, was invalidated by a federal court (and subsequently, by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals) in 2022.
Both courts sided with the Louisiana State Conference of the NAACP and other plaintiffs, who argued that the map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting power of Black voters in the state.
NEW MAJORITY-BLACK LOUISIANA HOUSE DISTRICT REJECTED, NOVEMBER ELECTION MAP STILL UNCERTAIN
Alanah Odoms speaks for a fair and representative congressional map at Supreme Court on March 24, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Legal Defense Fund)
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They also stressed that the Supreme Court should clarify how states should proceed under this "notoriously unclear area of the law" that pits Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act against equal protections, describing them as two "competing demands."
Officials have cited frustrations over repeatedly redrawing maps, and the prospect of being ordered back to the drawing board once again, and asked the court to "put an end to the extraordinary waste of time and resources that plagues the States after every redistricting cycle."
Breanne Deppisch is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-hears-pivotal-louisiana-election-map-case-ahead-2026-midterms