Supreme Court ruling comes after civil rights groups had argued redrawn electoral map diluted Black residents’ votes.
By Al Jazeera Staff
Washington, DC – The United States Supreme Court has allowed a voting rights lawsuit in Louisiana to proceed, after civil rights groups alleged that voting maps in the southern US state discriminated against Black voters.
The ruling by the top court on Monday paves the way for Louisiana officials to redraw the state’s congressional map to increase Black representation and deals a blow to the Republicans who carved up the six districts last year.
The decision follows an earlier ruling in which the Supreme Court’s justices sided with Black voters in Alabama who similarly claimed discrimination in violation of the civil rights-era Voting Rights Act.
The Louisiana case revolves around a congressional map drawn by Republican lawmakers for the 2022 elections that included only one Black-majority US House of Representatives district out of six in the state.
Black residents, who mostly vote Democratic, make up about one-third of Louisiana’s population.
