Supreme Court Agrees to Fast-Track Voting Rights Act Mandate (1)

The US Supreme Court agreed to expedite issuance of its mandate in a Louisiana redistricting fight, potentially clearing the way for the state to draw new congressional maps for the upcoming midterms.

The court granted the request in an unsigned order Monday, five days after a decision ruling Lousiana’s current congressional map violated the constitution. Justices Samuel Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch noted concurrences. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, saying the court’s recent actions in voting rights cases had spawned “chaos” in Louisiana.

A group of Louisiana voters who challenged the creation of a second majority-Black congressional district asked for the unusually swift judgment, warning that the standard 32-day delay for mandates could “endanger” the timeline for implementing a new map.

In a filing Tuesday, the NAACP asked the court to recall its expedited judgment, saying a group of Black voters and voting rights organizations intends to ask the justices to rehear the case.

The court was unlikely to grant either request. The justices routinely deny dozens of petitions for rehearing the court receives each year.

A three-judge panel in the Middle District of Louisiana last week directed the state to swiftly submit a plan on how it intends to comply with the opinion, with responses by challengers due shortly after.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) signed an executive order Thursday suspending the state’s primary elections for six congressional seats while the legislature adopts a new map. A separate lawsuit challenging that order was filed the same day in federal court in Baton Rouge. Early voting for the state’s May 16 primary began Saturday.

The Supreme Court’s decision, which weakened a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act used to challenge electoral maps as racially discriminatory, was expected to intensify the redistricting arms race across the country.

Separately, Alabama’s attorney general announced that he had filed emergency motions with the Supreme Court asking it to lift injunctions barring the state from using a 2023 congressional map the justices had found likely violated the VRA by diluting the power of Black voters.

The cases are Louisiana v. Callais and Robinson v. Callais, U.S., No. 24-109 and 24-110, application granted 5/4/26.