The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily reinstated a congressional map in Louisiana that includes a second majority-Black district, increasing the likelihood that Democrats could gain a House seat from the state in the November election.
The order was unsigned, as is the Supreme Court’s custom in ruling on emergency applications.
It came in response to a challenge to a lower-court decision that had blocked the map drawn by Louisiana’s Republican-controlled Legislature, deeming it a racial gerrymander.
The justices said that their decision would remain in effect pending an appeal or a ruling by the Supreme Court.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan did not explain their reasoning, but Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a dissent, wrote that she believed the court had intervened too soon.
Persons:
Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson
Organizations:
Louisiana’s Republican, Supreme
Locations:
Louisiana, Black