A Monday Supreme Court order will require Louisiana to create a second majority-black congressional district, following its decision in Allen v. Milligan where it ruled that Alabama’s congressional map violated the Voting Rights Act (VRA).
The court, in a list of orders on Monday, ordered the case of Ardoin v. Robinson – in which the State of Louisiana was successfully sued by Press Robinson and other black voters in the state – to be remanded to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. The decision effectively means that the case will be decided in accordance with the Milligan decision, where the Supreme Court vacated Alabama’s congressional map after ruling that it impermissibly limited the voting power of African Americans in the state by preventing the creation of a majority-black district. (RELATED: Did The Supreme Court Just Hand Democrats The Keys To Winning The House?)
Adding a second majority-black district to Louisiana, where only one currently exists, will mean that Democrats are likely to gain a seat in the state’s congressional delegation in 2024, complicating House Republicans’ efforts to defend their majority. “New black majority seats [are] basically new Democratic seats,” said Shawn Donohue, a redistricting expert and professor at the University of Buffalo, to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
SCOTUS sent Ardoin v. Robinson back to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals for further proceedings. The case has not been sent back to Judge Dick. This means there is currently no congressional map in place for Louisiana, but a remedy is not required either. pic.twitter.com/BP3bzISqDu
— Fair Lines America (@FairLinesUSA) June 26, 2023
The Supreme Court had previously granted an injunction to the state after the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana ruled, in June of 2022 during the congressional midterm elections, that the state map likely violated the VRA and ordered the state to cease using it. The decision to grant the stay was divided 6-3 along ideological lines, with all Democratic-appointed justices dissenting, though the Court explicitly held the case “in abeyance” pending the court’s decision in Milligan.
Monday’s order lifted that injunction, while also reversing a grant of certiorari to Louisiana where the court had agreed to hear the case.
Milligan had already affected political calculations in Louisiana even before the Court’s decision on Monday, with the Cook Political Report shifting its forecasting for two Louisiana congressional districts from “Solid R” to “Tossup.” Those two seats are held by Republican Reps. Julia Letlow and Garret Graves of Louisiana, with a new black-majority district likely to be drawn from territory currently represented by them.
The National Republican Congressional Committee had said, earlier, in a statement that “Democrats’ transparent political strategy to rig the game is to sue ’til it’s blue,” referring to the VRA lawsuits. It referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to a statement by Republican State Senate Majority Leader Sharon Hewitt, who chairs the state’s Redistricting Committee and who said that “Louisiana’s Congressional maps were passed by a supermajority of the Legislature and comply with the law.”
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.