The Court did not decide Louisiana v. Callais today.

The case involves a challenge to Louisiana’s congressional maps. In 2023, after a federal court found Louisiana had violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by failing to provide a second minority opportunity district for its black voters, the state enacted the challenged map. The new map established a second majority–black congressional district, an uncouth “shaky ‘Z’ across the state” not unlike a district previously enjoined. The new district was then challenged by the current plaintiffs as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Louisiana defended on the grounds, first, that it used race based on its good-faith and court-ordered belief that the VRA required a second minority-opportunity district and, second, that the district is the result of its desire to preserve the districts of its two most important incumbent representatives (Mike Johnson and Stephen Scalise–serving as Speaker and Majority Leader, respectively). The lower court held that the district did indeed violate the Equal Protection Clause.

My prediction: Nothing good will come of this case. The question is only how far they will go to further undermine VRA.