From today’s New York Times:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated a congressional voting map in Louisiana that a federal judge had said diluted the power of Black voters.
The court’s three liberal members dissented.
The Supreme Court’s brief order, which included no reasoning, blocked the judge’s order and granted a petition seeking review in the case. The justices will, the order said, hold the Louisiana case while the court decides a similar one from Alabama in its next term.
The dispute in Louisiana is part of a pitched battle over redistricting playing out across the country. Civil rights leaders and some Democrats say the redistricting process often disadvantages growing minority communities. Republican state officials say the Constitution allows only a limited role for the consideration of race in drawing voting districts.
Louisiana has six congressional districts, and about a third of its population is Black. According to one measure in the 2020 census, the state’s Black population grew by 3.8 percent in the preceding decade, while the white population declined by 6.3 percent.
After the census, the State Legislature, controlled by Republicans, enacted a voting map with a single district in which Black voters made up a majority. Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana, a Democrat, vetoed the map in March, saying it was “simply not fair to the people of Louisiana.” The Legislature overrode the governor’s veto.
Read the complete story here.