Supreme Court Strikes Down Louisiana’s Congressional Map in 6-3 Voting Rights Ruling

LAFAYETTE, La. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down Louisiana’s congressional map in Louisiana v. Callais, finding that the state’s second majority-Black district violated the Equal Protection Clause and reshaping how Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act applies to redistricting.

The 6-3 decision affirmed a 2024 ruling from a three-judge panel of the Western District of Louisiana, which had blocked SB8 as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The case now returns to that court for further proceedings.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Justice Kagan wrote the dissent, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson. Thomas also filed a separate concurrence, which Justice Gorsuch joined.

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What This Means for Louisiana’s 2026 Elections

Whether Louisiana can redraw its congressional map before the November 2026 midterms is unsettled, and the state’s election calendar makes it unlikely.

Louisiana is using closed party primaries for congressional races for the first time in 2026, with the primary set for May 16 and a runoff on June 27. Lawmakers held an October 2025 special session specifically to push qualifying back in anticipation of an early Callais ruling. State Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, who chairs the House and Governmental Affairs Committee, told NOLA.com in December 2025 that if the Supreme Court did not rule by year’s end and the closed-primary system remained in place, “we’re running on the current maps.”

The ruling came on April 29, well past that window. Candidate qualifying for the May primary closed February 13. Any new map would likely be drawn for use in 2028 and beyond.

What that map looks like is also unclear. State Rep. Kyle Green, D-New Orleans, has noted that the Legislature explicitly revoked the law creating the prior 2022 map when it passed SB8, leaving SB8 as the only configuration on Louisiana’s books. State officials have suggested the Legislature could revert to a single-majority-Black district configuration if the ruling stood, though Gov. Landry’s office has not announced a specific path forward.

What This Means Beyond Louisiana

The decision’s effect reaches well beyond the state’s borders. The updated Gingles framework applies to every Section 2 vote-dilution case in the country, and pending challenges in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Dakota, and elsewhere will now proceed under the tightened standard.