Supreme Court lets Louisiana redistricting ruling take effect immediately, sparking angry words between Alito, Jackson

Source: CBS News

Politics
Supreme Court lets Louisiana redistricting ruling take effect immediately, sparking angry words between Alito and Jackson

By Joe Walsh
May 4, 2026 / 10:36 PM EDT / CBS News

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed last week's landmark decision striking down Louisiana's congressional map to take effect immediately, as GOP state officials scramble to redraw the map before this year's elections -- drawing a sharp back-and-forth between two justices. ... The court ruled 6-3 in Louisiana v. Callais that the state's U.S. House map -- which currently includes two majority-Black districts held by Democrats -- is unconstitutional. Louisiana officials reacted by quickly suspending this month's House primaries and moving to draw a new map.

The voters who initially challenged Louisiana's map asked the justices last week to speed up the usual 32-day period between when a ruling is announced and when the Supreme Court clerk formally passes the decision down to a lower court. They wrote that "time is ... of the essence" with this year's elections approaching quickly, and said the issue needs to be returned to the district court so it can "oversee an orderly process" to fix Louisiana's maps. ... On Monday, the high court granted that request, writing that the court's typical 32-day wait period is "subject to adjustment" by the justices.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, one of the court's three liberals, assailed Monday's decision, calling it "unwarranted and unwise" and suggesting the court had effectively greenlit Louisiana's attempts to call off its primaries and push through a new map. She pointed to still-ongoing legal battles over the suspended primaries, part of the "chaos" wrought by the Callais ruling.

Jackson said the court should "stay on the sidelines" to "avoid the appearance of partiality," citing the court's traditional reluctance to make changes right before an election. ... "And just like that, those principles give way to power," she wrote. ... Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority opinion in the Callais case, pushed back strongly in a concurrence joined by fellow conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.

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