The Supreme Court’s decision last week invalidating Louisiana’s congressional map has spawned a fast-moving set of court fights over the state’s ongoing primary, as Gov. Jeff Landry seeks to halt the ongoing primaries to draw a new congressional map.
The Supreme Court ruled Louisiana should not have been forced to draw a congressional map with a second Black-majority district to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The following day, Landry postponed his state’s May 16 primaries for the House, saying in part that elections should not proceed under an unconstitutional map.
Voters have challenged Landry’s move in both state and federal court, as a different group of voters who brought the Supreme Court case, Louisiana v. Callais, asks the justices to speed up typically perfunctory actions after a decision.
In the federal challenge to Landry’s order, which was assigned to a three-judge panel, voters argue the election cancellation violated their civil rights. The judges have asked both sides to file arguments over how to handle the issues by Thursday, in an order that also said the panel and could call a hearing.
In the state challenge, voters and voting rights groups argue in part the cancellation exceeds the governor’s authority to invoke emergency power to stop elections because of a Supreme Court ruling, rather than a natural disaster, public health or other safety emergency.
At the same time, a separate group of voters, the ones who successfully challenged the current map, asked the justices to fast-track the issuance of the decision — formally sending it back to a different three-judge panel so that the state could redistrict.
The three-judge panel in that case said in an order last week that the state would have three days to lay out its redistricting plans once the justices formally issue that decision.
The challengers in that case, similar to Landry, argue that the state should not conduct a primary election under a map that was already found to be unconstitutional.
The new federal challenge to Landry’s decision to cancel the election could get to the Supreme Court in a test of how the justices will handle a redistricting effort so late before an election.
In December, the justices wrote that a lower court “inserted itself into an active primary campaign” by issuing a ruling invalidating Texas’ map four months before the state’s primary. In 2022, the justices blocked a lower court order mandating a new congressional map for Alabama three months before its primary.
In Louisiana, early voting had been set to start Saturday ahead of a May 16 primary. Ballots have already been sent to overseas and military voters, according to court records.
