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Oral arguments started before the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday on a case that will determine the future of Louisiana’s congressional district maps.
As The Center Square reports, the court heard arguments from Louisiana Solicitor General Ben Aguiñaga in the combined Louisiana v. Callais case. Louisiana was required through a court order last year to add a second majority-minority district.
On Monday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested that one of the maps offered by the original plaintiffs would have been a better solution since it was more “geographically compact” than the state-drawn maps.
Chief Justice John Roberts during arguments described the newly-drawn District 6 as a “snake,” describing how it stretches along the Red River from Shreveport southwards to Alexandria and Baton Rouge.
“This court has been clear that states have breathing room to take reasonable efforts to comply with the Voting Rights Act and they may also balance the many other interests that enter the redistricting calculus,” Aguiñaga told justices on Monday. “And so it was perfectly appropriate after two federal courts had found that Louisiana had likely violated Section 2 that the state sought to comply with those rulings and that it exercised its authority to protect favored incumbents and unite preferred communities of interest and accounting for those kinds of political considerations is squarely the Legislature’s prerogative.”
