Supreme Court to hear Louisiana redistricting case on second Black-Majority District

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — Less than 24 hours remain before the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a pivotal case over Louisiana’s second majority-Black congressional district and whether the map violates parts of the Voting Rights Act.

On Tuesday, opponents of the 2024 redistricting plan, including Bert Callais, gathered to voice concerns ahead of the high court hearing. Callais, the lead plaintiff in Callais v. Landry, argues that the map adopted after a federal court found the state’s previous version likely diluted Black voting power is unfair to non-Black voters.

The plaintiffs claim the 2024 plan amounts to an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Their attorney, Paul Hurd, contends state leaders were not required by any court to adopt a new plan and instead acted for political reasons.

“We have a real interesting switcheroo, if you will, on who is supporting this and who is not,” Hurd said.

Hurd argued that the federal court never ordered Louisiana to create a second majority-Black district but merely gave the state the option to defend its original 2022 map. Instead, he said, lawmakers “gave in” and enacted a proposal supported by the NAACP.

Governor Jeff Landry, who joined the meeting remotely, pushed back on that claim. He credited himself and Attorney General Liz Murrill for ensuring the issue reached the nation’s highest court.

“The only reason we have an opportunity to make corrections is because of the hard work that Liz Murrill and I have been doing while I was attorney general in 2022,” Landry said. “We defended [the map] all the way to the Supreme Court.”

Oral arguments in Callais v. Landry are scheduled for Wednesday. The outcome could reshape political representation in Louisiana for years to come, determining whether the state’s new map complies with federal voting protections or constitutes unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.

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