Supreme Court to Hear Louisiana Voting Map Dispute

The case, which centers on whether Louisiana's congressional districts are the site of illegal racial gerrymandering, tests the discretion states have in drawing electoral district maps.

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Voting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in last year's election, when the state used an electoral map that for the first time included two congressional districts in which black voters made up the majority.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday in a dispute over whether the Louisiana Legislature took race into account when drawing the state's latest congressional voting map.

The justices' decision in the dispute could determine how congressional maps are drawn in Louisiana and beyond, as courts wrestle with the extent to which states can legally consider race in the process. It's the latest in a series of challenges to the Voting Rights Act that have come before the court in recent years.

The Supreme Court has long recognized that there is a potential conflict between Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits practices that weaken the voting rights of racial minorities, and the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause, which courts have said requires that maps not be based on race unless they are narrowly drawn to serve a compelling government interest.

Traditionally, judges have given states some leeway in using these two approaches to create their maps.

But the Louisiana dispute will test how courts should view maps when those principles clash.

The outcome of the dispute, which could change the boundaries of majority-black districts in the state, could also help determine the balance of power in the House in the coming years, at a time when political control of the chamber has often rested on razor-thin lines.

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