Supreme Court Issues Callais Judgment, Allows Louisiana to Redraw Map Despite Jackson Dissent

The Supreme Court on Monday issued its judgment in Callais v. Landry, allowing Louisiana to redraw its congressional map deemed unconstitutional under the Voting Rights Act. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented alone, accusing her colleagues of partisanship, while Justice Samuel Alito called her attack insulting in a concurrence joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.

Last week, the Court ruled that Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, as amended in 1982 and 2007, requires racial remedies only for intentional discrimination, not partisan gerrymandering. Justice Alito wrote the majority opinion, overturning decades of interpretations from Thornburg v. Gingles (1986) that mandated majority-minority districts for proportional representation. Justices Thomas and Gorsuch would have ended Section 2 claims entirely.

Louisiana's current map violates this standard, as it packs African-American voters—about 30 percent of the population—into fewer than two of six districts. With primaries approaching and early voting under way, a lower court ordered the state to explain compliance. Gov. Jeff Landry suspended the primary, but time remains short to redraw and reschedule.

Under Supreme Court Rule 45, judgments typically issue 32 days after opinions to allow rehearing petitions. The Court expedited here, as in Trump v. Anderson (2024), to avoid delay. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, who dissented in Callais, raised no objection. Jackson argued expedited issuance would make the Court look partisan.

Alito's concurrence rejected this as an insult, noting the other dissenters' silence. He questioned whether Jackson viewed them as anti-Democrat. The opinion praised the procedural move as essential given election deadlines.

The ruling builds on Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), which upheld partisan gerrymandering. Louisiana's map stemmed from prior VRA misreadings that forced race-based districts even in Republican strongholds.