In a pending case on Louisiana’s congressional map, the justices ordered briefing on whether it’s constitutional to intentionally draw majority-Black districts.
The Supreme Court said Friday that it will weigh the constitutionality of a common form of redistricting used to protect the voting power of Black and Hispanic voters: the drawing of congressional districts where racial minorities make up at least half the population.
Experts in election law said the move signals that the court may be poised to further narrow the Voting Rights Act.
In a terse order issued Friday evening, the justices called for briefing on whether the “intentional creation of a second majority-minority congressional district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.”
The order came in a case challenging Louisiana’s congressional map, which contains two majority-Black districts out of the state’s six House seats.
The court heard arguments in the case in March and had been expected to rule by June. But on June 27, the justices punted the case into their next term and ordered that it be reargued.