A panel of federal judges has tossed out Louisiana’s new congressional map, striking the state’s second majority-Black district just months after it was signed into law.
The ruling, if it stands, could be a win for Republicans, since Democrats were almost certain to win the newly drawn district.
Louisiana’s congressional lines have been bogged down in a long-running legal battle. A federal court found in the summer of 2022 that the map Louisiana Republicans drew after the 2020 census likely violated the Voting Rights Act because it diluted the power of Black Louisianians.
The Supreme Court, however, allowed that map to be used for the 2022 midterms, and it saw five white Republicans and one Black Democrat elected in a state where Black residents made up roughly a third of the population.
