Overview

• The court’s August 8 order directs fresh briefs and a return to oral argument over whether Louisiana’s remedial map violates equal protection under the 14th Amendment or voting rights under the 15th Amendment.
• By raising constitutional questions, the justices have opened the door to striking down key Section 2 provisions of the Voting Rights Act that enable private lawsuits against discriminatory voting maps.
• Federal judges had ruled Louisiana’s original map unlawfully packed Black voters into one district and imposed a new plan creating two majority-Black districts.
• Self-identified non-African American challengers argue that the race-conscious districts unlawfully discriminate against white voters under the Voting Rights Act.
• Critics contend the court’s push for a race-neutral reading of the Constitution contradicts the 14th Amendment’s original intent to remedy post-Reconstruction racial discrimination.