The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request today for a hearing with the full court on the issue of whether individuals and groups can sue under Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act.
Monday’s decision means the entire 5th Circuit — the nation’s most conservative federal appeals court which covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — won’t consider whether a group of Black voters and civil rights groups lacked the standing to sue Louisiana in 2022 over the state’s electoral districts, which were struck down by a federal district court in February. The state is appealing this decision, so the matter is not yet resolved.
The vote on the 5th Circuit was close, with eight judges voting in favor of hearing the case en banc, and eight others declining the hearing.
Attorneys for the state indicated in a June 7 status report that officials were waiting for the 5th Circuit’s ruling on whether it would hold an en banc hearing on the private-right-of-action issue before Louisiana began the process of redrawing the state’s legislative maps.