In a surprising victory for voting rights, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Black voters in Louisiana.
The nation's highest court dismissed an appeal from the Louisiana government over its proposed congressional district map, which was found to unlawfully dilute the influence of Black voters. There were no noted dissents.
Louisiana officials were sued last year for their proposed map, which designated just one of its six districts as majority-Black, despite the census data showing 33 percent of the state's population — one-third — is Black. Republicans in the state Senate and House of Representatives pushed the map through despite the veto of Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards.
The state's maps will now return to lower courts "in advance of the 2024 congressional elections in Louisiana," which could lead to them being redrawn to include two majority-Black districts.
The case is similar to another unexpected voting rights victory from the conservative-dominated court earlier this month, in which the justices determined a Republican-drawn map discriminated against Black voters in Alabama, making it difficult for them to vote for candidates of their choice.
The Louisiana case had been on pause at the Supreme Court awaiting a decision in the Alabama case. Both decision are likely to benefit Democrats in gaining seats in the House of Representatives during the 2024 general election
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote of the Alabama decision: “A district is not equally open, in other words, when minority voters face – unlike their majority peers – bloc voting along racial lines, arising against the backdrop of substantial racial discrimination within the State, that renders a minority vote unequal to a vote by a nonminority voter. ”
Attorney General Merrick Garland called the Alabama decision a rejection of "efforts to further erode fundamental voting rights protections, and preserves the principle that in the United States."
"All eligible voters must be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote free from discrimination based on their race," he said.
