It took a moment, but Louisiana finally has a map that it feels aligns with the core of the Callais case the Supreme Court decided in April: the state's map is unconstitutional. It had created another race-based congressional district under Section II of the Voting Rights Act. They already had one. The Court ruled 6-3 that this map did not meet the benchmarks for such provisions, narrowing the use of the VRA for race-based apportionment. Louisiana paused some of its upcoming primaries, rescheduling the federal races, while state races continued as usual.
There was a hiccup, as the state legislature refused to remove the districts created under VRA guidelines. They kept one (via NYT):
🚨 JUST IN: Louisiana Senate PASSES 5R-1D 2026 redistricting map, sending it STRAIGHT to Gov. Jeff Landry for signature
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 29, 2026
Democrats are furious!
Now Louisiana should DOUBLE DOWN and allow a 6R-0D map to take effect.
South Carolina did not redistrict, and Louisiana can make up… pic.twitter.com/91ywHZjsyW
Louisiana lawmakers gave final approval on Friday to a new congressional map that would eliminate one of the state’s two majority-Black districts, making it the second Southern state to draw and approve carving out such a district since the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act last month.
The new map is Louisiana’s response to the court’s ruling, which rejected its previous congressional map as an illegal racial gerrymander. After delaying the state’s U.S. House primaries and negotiating for weeks, the Republican-controlled Legislature settled on redrawing the district at the center of the ruling in a way that reduces the number of Black voters who live in it and hands Republicans a structural advantage ahead of the November midterms.
The State Senate approved the map 28 to 10 on Friday afternoon, a day after a House vote that fell almost completely along party lines. Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, is expected to sign it into law. Primary elections for the state’s six U.S. House seats have been pushed to Nov. 3, about six months later than all of the other primary elections in the state.
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In an ideal world without election schedules, I have no doubt that the plaintiffs in the Callais case would have also challenged this map. They are unhappy that a race-based district was kept. They want them all eliminated. I understand, folks. We won; we should act like it. And why are we avoiding it? Just to avoid upsetting the people who already hate us?
Plaintiffs argue that Louisiana’s leading proposed congressional map, SB121, preserves the race-based structure of the current majority-Black 2nd District, emulating the 2022 and 2011 maps.
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) May 27, 2026
Plaintiffs warn that if state officials wait too long to finalize a map, courts could become reluctant to order further changes close to the 2026 elections because of election-administration concerns under the Supreme Court’s Purcell doctrine.
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) May 27, 2026
Read the motion here: https://t.co/GJiYVf204A
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) May 27, 2026
For those confused:
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) May 27, 2026
The Callais plaintiffs are the ones who successfully defeated the map with two-majority black seats at SCOTUS last month.
They now argue that Louisiana’s leading proposed map with one remaining majority-black seat may be unconstitutional as designed.
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