Black voters rip SCOTUS rush to greenlight Louisiana map redraw

WASHINGTON (CN) — Black voters who forced Louisiana to add a second majority-Black congressional district asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to recall an order allowing a contentious voting rights ruling to take effect immediately.

The night prior, the justices issued a rare order agreeing to rush the implementation of their decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down the state's congressional maps. The high court's unsigned order reasoned the Black voters hadn't asked the court to reconsider its judgment.

But civil rights groups supporting the voters said that was incorrect. The second sentence of their opposition to expediting release of the ruling states "this court should afford appellants the opportunity to consider seeking rehearing in the ordinary course."

The Black voters asked the justices to recall the judgment, reconsider their order granting the application and deny it.

Under court practice, the clerk issues a certified judgment about 32 days after a ruling. Just hours after its decision last week, the plaintiffs Callais — a group of "non-African American voters" — asked the high court to fast-track the procedural process formalizing their win.

Tension across the bench over granting their request spilled out into the public Monday night. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Joe Biden appointee, issued a blistering solo dissent admonishing her colleagues for ignoring protocol to assist a Republican redraw amid an ongoing election. She noted the court has only ever agreed to rush the release of its judgment in two other cases over the last 25 years.

"Not content to have decided the law, it now takes steps to influence its implementation," Jackson wrote. "The court's decision to buck our usual practice under Rule 45.3 and issue the judgment forthwith is tantamount to an approval of Louisiana's rush to pause the ongoing election in order to pass a new map."

Justice Samuel Alito, a George W. Bush appointee, said Jackson's accusation was "groundless and utterly irresponsible" in a concurring opinion joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. He said Jackson leveled charges that cannot go unanswered, characterizing her reasons for delaying as "trivial at best" and "baseless and insulting."

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry issued an executive order last week, delaying the state's May 16 primary elections until July to give lawmakers time to draw a new map. The decision came just days before early voting was scheduled to begin but after 42,000 absentee ballots had already been submitted, according to reports.

A different group of Louisiana voters and a Democratic primary candidate filed a lawsuit challenging Landry's order, noting absentee ballots had already been sent out and that early voting was scheduled to begin Saturday.

Black voters and civil rights groups sued Louisiana over its 2022 voting maps, which included just one majority-Black district despite Black voters making up 30% of the voting-age population in the state. The Supreme Court approved the map for the 2022 midterms, citing Purcell v. Gonzalez, which limits federal court interference in the run-up to elections.

After a lengthy legal fight and a federal ruling, lawmakers approved a new map in 2024 with a second majority-Black district. A group of "non-African American voters" then sued, saying the map is unconstitutional. The court again paused changes for the 2024 election under Purcell but left the new map in place.

The Supreme Court heard two argument sessions in 2025 on whether adding the second majority-Black district under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional. In a 6-3 ruling last week, the court held that it was.