The U.S. Supreme Court last week dashed the hopes of voting-rights groups that challenged Louisiana’s congressional redistricting map drawn up by the state Legislature for not including a second majority-Black district.
Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin and Attorney General Jeff Landry asked the high court to block a Fifth District Court of Appeals decision affirming a lower court’s finding that the congressional map is racially discriminatory and a probable violation of the Voting Rights Act. The application was made to Justice Samuel Alito last month.
“The application for the stay presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the court is granted,” the U.S. Supreme Court said in a June 28 order. The order indicated that the Louisiana case would be held in abeyance pending the court’s decision in a similar case involving the Alabama secretary of state.
“The case will continue to be litigated,” Ella Wiley, spokeswoman for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF), told the Louisiana Record in an email. “The Supreme Court's stay is temporary but unfortunately means the map will remain in place for the 2022 election, and until the case reaches a final decision.”
The original complaint was filed by LDF, other voting rights groups, including the ACLU of Louisiana, and nine individual voters. The lawsuit argued that because the state’s voting-age population is about one-third Black, two of the state’s six congressional districts ought to be majority-minority in order to provide fair representation to all Louisiana voters.
Stuart Naifeh, manager of LDF’s Redistricting Project, called the high court’s ruling unwarranted and a setback for justice.
“Two courts have looked at the facts and agree that Louisiana’s congressional map violates the Voting Rights Act, and that using it in the upcoming election will rob Black voters of their right to participate in the political process on an equal footing,” Naifeh said in a statement emailed to the Record. “The Voting Rights Act was created precisely to prevent the kind of manipulation of district lines to undermine the voices and power of Black people that we see in Louisiana.”
Ardoin, however, said the high court’s decision was a victory for election security.
“The primary function of the secretary of state is to ensure elections are conducted in a secure and equitable manner,” he said in a prepared statement. “We work hard, year-round, to guarantee that Louisiana's elections run effectively and securely. (The June 28) ruling by the United States Supreme Court gives us the ability to continue working to implement secure elections this fall for all voters in Louisiana."