(DCWatchdog.com) – The United States Supreme Court has allowed Louisiana to redraw its congressional map to add a second black-majority district.
On Monday, the highest court in the nation lifted the block that it had previously placed on a lower court’s order in favor of Louisiana’s congressional redistricting.
In doing so, the US Supreme Court reversed its plans to hear the case. CNN reports that the decision to allow a potential second black-majority district in Louisiana was practically unanimous, as there were no noted dissents among the nine justices.
The new Supreme Court decision came after it also ruled that Alabama should alter its congressional maps to create two black-majority districts instead of one.
The 5-4 ruling declared the redrawing would be in accordance with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, The Washington Times reports.
Alabama and Louisiana already had one black-majority congressional district each, but voters sued, insisting each should have a second one based on the results from the 2020 census.
Thus, in its new decision, the US Supreme Court declared without comment that the still unresolved Louisiana case could “proceed before the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for review in the ordinary course and in advance of the 2024 congressional elections.”
After finding that 33% of Louisiana’s population is black, the lower court ordered the state to redraw its six districts to have a second black-majority district.
The state appealed the order, and the US Supreme Court blocked its execution until it reviewed a similar dispute in Alabama.
Earlier this month, in the Alabama redistricting case, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote on behalf of the majority that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act required states to guarantee that their voting process was “equally open,” meaning that minorities were supposed to have the same voting opportunities as others.
Thus, the US Supreme Court ruled that the voting power of Alabama’s black residents had been illegally diluted since the congressional map divided them among several districts, with only one where they were the main voting force.
As a result, the Supreme Court majority sided with lower courts under its precedents for judging district lines.
Supreme Court lifts block on Louisiana adding second majority Black congressional districthttps://t.co/UPNNWyhIqV pic.twitter.com/zHrWK0s96C
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) June 26, 2023
