Supreme Court tees up Louisiana case on constitutionality of racial redistricting

The Supreme Court has teed up a major case for next term on whether racial redistricting is unconstitutional.

In a Friday night scheduling order, the high court asked parties to file briefs on whether Louisiana's creation of a second majority-minority House seat violates the 14th or 15th Amendments. The question could significantly curtail efforts to force states to create majority-minority congressional districts.

The order is part of a case from the 2024 term regarding Louisiana's congressional map that justices decided to hold over for re-argument. The justices set a deadline of Aug. 27 for briefs to be filed by appellants on the question. Reply briefs are due Oct. 3, the Friday before the beginning of the 2025 session.

In June, the Supreme Court ordered further arguments over Louisiana's congressional map that was approved by the state's GOP-led legislature and created a second majority-Black district.

An order from the court issued on the last day of the 2024 term restored the case to its calendar for reargument. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from the move to order more arguments and said the court should have decided the case.

The move meant the state's map with two majority-Black districts would remain intact for now.

The district lines at the center of the dispute were invalidated in 2022 by a three-judge lower court panel, which sided with a group of self-described "non-African-American voters" who had challenged the House map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

The map wasn't the first crafted by the state's Republican-led legislature in the wake of the 2020 Census. Instead, Louisiana's efforts to redraw district lines, as all states do after the census, have resulted in a yearslong legal battle that has been before the Supreme Court twice before.

The case demonstrated the challenges state lawmakers face when trying to balance trying to comply with the Voting Rights Act without relying too much on race in the drawing the political lines, which can run afoul of the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. The Supreme Court's decision is also likely to have implications for the balance of power in the House in the 2026 midterm elections, when Republicans will try to hold onto their tiny majority.

Jan Crawford contributed to this report.

• Redistricting
• Supreme Court of the United States
• Louisiana