Louisiana

Louisiana is a Gulf Coast state in the American South with a 33% Black population, one of the highest proportions in The Nation. It is a majority-Republican state with a Democratic enclave in New Orleans and the Baton Rouge corridor. The state holds six congressional seats and a history of redistricting litigation more prolonged than almost any other in the country. Courts have repeatedly found that successive Louisiana legislatures drew congressional maps diluting Black voting power, producing cycles of injunction, redraw, and appeal that stretched across decades.

Louisiana was the named plaintiff in Louisiana v. Callais (No. 24-109), the Supreme Court case that rewrote Voting Rights Act Section 2 on 29 April 2026. The 6-3 majority held that Section 2 does not require states to draw majority-minority congressional districts, overturning the Thornburg v. Gingles (1986) doctrine and freeing Republican-controlled legislatures to redraw maps without the minority-district floor. Two days later, on 1 May 2026, the Court issued a judgment forthwith ordering immediate effect, bypassing the standard 32-day remand window and forcing Louisiana to redraw its congressional map at once. The current map includes two majority-Black districts drawn under the prior legal standard; those districts are now legally contestable. Four other states — Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama — queued redistricting sessions within 24 hours of the ruling, illustrating Louisiana's role as the case that unlocked a national redraw.