Louisiana has asked the appeals court to stay the ruling until the Supreme Court rules on a related federal redistricting case it will hear in October.
After rejecting Louisiana’s request that it invalidate a key provision of the federal Voting Rights Act in a state-level redistricting lawsuit, a federal appeals court is considering whether it should pause its ruling.
In an Aug. 14 ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a federal district court’s decision that the Louisiana State Legislature-ordered redrawing of Louisiana’s legislative districts violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The case is known as Nairne v. Landry. On Aug. 15, the state asked the circuit court to put the ruling on hold.
Section 2 prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership in a large language minority group. Courts have interpreted the section to forbid race-based gerrymandering. Gerrymandering refers to the manipulation of electoral district boundaries to benefit a particular party or constituency.
In a separate case, Alabama had asked the Supreme Court in Allen v. Milligan to weaken Section 2. The high court declined to do so in a June 2023 ruling.
On Aug. 15, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill asked the Fifth Circuit to put the Aug. 14 decision on hold until the Supreme Court decides Louisiana v. Callais, an appeal about the use of race in the congressional redistricting process in Louisiana. The high court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on Oct. 15.
The Fifth Circuit should pause its ruling because the Supreme Court has indicated there may be a “potentially significant change” in how the courts interpret Section 2 and the Constitution’s equal protection clause, Murrill’s brief said.
Because the high court’s eventual ruling in Louisiana v. Callais “may moot or at least directly impact the Section 2 issues in this case,” the Fifth Circuit should wait for its ruling, according to the brief.
It is unclear when the Fifth Circuit will rule on the request.
