The Supreme Court handed Republicans a significant win by voiding Louisiana’s congressional map and curbing the use of race in redistricting.
In Louisiana v. Callais, a majority of justices said Louisiana’s 2024 election map that intentionally added a second Black-majority district was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander because no compelling interest justified using race as the predominant consideration. Louisiana has six congressional districts and is about one-third Black.
The decision has ramifications for redistricting, particularly in Southern states, where rampant discrimination against Black voters led to the enactment of the Voting Rights Act in the 1960s. The 6-3 ruling narrows but doesn’t overturn the VRA’s Section 2, which prohibits election and voting procedures that dilute minority voting rights.
Republican state governments could seek to dismantle predominantly Black and Hispanic congressional and state legislative districts that mostly favor Democrats.
The decision will escalate a mid-decade redistricting war through the 2028 election. Seven states have adopted new congressional maps for the 2026 election, and Florida’s Republican legislature planned to do so as soon as Wednesday.
“For decades the left has spent hundreds of millions of dollars seeking to divide Americans along racial lines in a cynical pursuit of partisan power masquerading as civil rights enforcement,” Adam Kincaid, the president and executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, said in a statement. “Today’s decision rebukes that divisive and unconstitutional effort.”
Long-term Effects
It may have just a limited effect on the 2026 election, as some states have already held primary elections, and most have had their candidate filing deadlines pass. Any new maps this year or in subsequent elections could affect the campaign for control of the House, where both parties have won slim majorities in recent years.
Republicans are at risk of losing their majority to Democrats in President Donald Trump’s second midterm election.
Louisiana has long had a Black-majority district in the New Orleans area and added a second Black-majority district for the 2024 election that winds about 250 miles from Shreveport to Baton Rouge. Rep.
The Supreme Court decision is “obviously the right result,” Speaker
Louisiana election officials and candidates already were preparing for the state’s May 16 primary under current maps. Candidate filing closed in February.
Democrats and voting-rights groups denounced the decision.
“Despite this corrupt and targeted assault on the voting rights of Black and Brown Americans from the Supreme Court, Democrats remain poised to retake the House Majority in November,” Rep.
Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, called the ruling “a devastating setback in the long fight for equality in political representation for all Americans.”
Congress “must ban gerrymandering in congressional races, immediately,” he said in a statement.
States to Watch
Gov. Tate Reeves (R-Miss.) last week called for a special legislative session to address redistricting once the Supreme Court issued its ruling, though it’s unclear if a replacement congressional map can be put in place before the November election because the state already held its primary last month. Republicans could target the Black-majority 2nd District of Rep.
Tennessee’s Republican government could also try to splinter the state’s only Democratic district, a Black-majority constituency in the Memphis-area that’s represented by Rep.
“I urge our state legislature to reconvene to redistrict another Republican seat in Memphis,” Sen.
The case is LOUISIANA v. CALLAIS, U.S., No. 24-109, Opinion issued 4/29/26
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