Louisiana v. Callais — Voting Rights Act (LA)

On March 30, 2022, civil rights groups and Black voters sued Louisiana’s secretary of state, arguing that the state’s congressional districts adopted by the legislature earlier that year violated the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The map was adopted over the veto of Gov. John Bel Edwards.

On June 6, 2022, a federal district court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. The court found that making only one out of six districts majority-Black—even though one-third of Louisiana’s population is Black—weakened the voting power of Black voters and likely violated the VRA. The court blocked the state from using the original map and ordered the legislature to adopt a new map with two majority-Black districts.

The case was appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. On Nov. 10, 2023, the appeals court upheld the district court’s finding that the map likely violated the VRA. The court gave the legislature an opportunity to adopt a new map to resolve the violation.

On Jan. 22, 2024, Gov. Jeff Landry signed a new map into law that the legislature drew. That new map created a second majority-Black district.

On Jan. 31, a different group of Louisiana voters—self-identifying as “non-African Americans”—filed a new lawsuit (Callais v. Landry) in federal district court challenging the new map.

On May 7, the district court sided with the plaintiffs, finding that the new map was unconstitutionally gerrymandered. Once again, the court ordered the legislature to redraw the map.

Louisiana appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court on June 18, which first heard oral argument on March 24, 2025.

On June 27, 2025, the Supreme Court ordered that the case be reargued. Then, on Aug. 1, 2025, the justices requested that the parties submit briefs on an additional question: “Whether the State’s intentional creation of a second majority-minority congressional district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution.”

On Aug. 27, 2025, Louisiana filed a brief answering the additional question posed by the high court, arguing that the second majority-Black district violated the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. In doing so, the state no longer defended its new map and instead asked the justices to rule that any consideration of race in redistricting is unconstitutional.

On Oct. 15, 2025, the case was reargued before the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Sept. 3, 2025, four former Republican governors represented by States United filed an amicus brief in the case in support of the civil rights groups and Black Louisiana voters who brought the original lawsuit. The governors urged the Supreme Court to preserve states’ ability to draw majority-minority districts to remedy violations of the VRA and ensure equal representation.

“If districting interferes with citizens’ ability to elect their representatives and hold them accountable, democracy itself is degraded,” they wrote.

On April 29, 2026, the Supreme Court gutted the protections of Section 2 of the VRA. In a 6-3 decision, the court held that Louisiana’s creation of a second majority-minority district was unconstitutional.

The majority’s opinion sets up a new, higher standard that plaintiffs must meet to bring challenges to maps under the Voting Rights Act. The new standard is likely to severely limit the number of challenges that are able to be brought against racially gerrymandered maps, and could influence the results of a significant number of races for Congress.

• Amicus brief (filed Sept. 3, 2025)
• Press release

• NPR: Supreme Court paves the way for largest-ever drop in Black representation in Congress (April 30, 2026)
• SCOTUSblog: In major Voting Rights Act case, Supreme Court strikes down redistricting map challenged as racially discriminatory (April 29, 2026)
• Louisiana Illuminator: Federal court rejects Louisiana congressional map (June 6, 2022)