CASE PREVIEW
Supreme Court to hear arguments in pivotal case on the Voting Rights Act

By Amy Howe
on Oct 10, 2025

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Wednesday, Oct. 15, in Louisiana v. Callais, a challenge to the congressional map that Louisiana adopted in 2024 that may reshape the Voting Rights Act. It is the second go-round at the court for this dispute in less than a year; the justices heard arguments in the case for the first time in March, but didn’t decide it during their 2024-25 term. Here is a brief explainer on the long and complicated history of this case.

How did this dispute start?

The dispute began back in 2022, when Louisiana’s Legislature adopted a congressional map with one majority-Black district out of the six seats allotted to the state, although roughly one-third of the state’s population is Black. A group of Black voters went to federal court, where they argued that the 2022 map violated Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act, which prohibits election practices that result in a denial or abridgement of the right to vote based on race.

A federal district court agreed with the Black voters that the 2022 map likely violated Section 2, barred the state from using the map for future congressional elections, and directed the state to draw a new plan with a second majority-Black district. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld that ruling.

In 2024, the Louisiana Legislature drew a new map, known as S.B. 8, that created a second majority-Black district. A different group of voters, who describe themselves as “non-African American,” contended that the 2024 map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander – that is, that it impermissibly sorted voters based primarily on their race, in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. A three-judge district court agreed with them and barred the state from using the map in congressional elections.

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Recommended Citation: Amy Howe, Supreme Court to hear arguments in pivotal case on the Voting Rights Act, SCOTUSblog (Oct. 10, 2025, 9:30 AM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/10/supreme-court-to-hear-arguments-in-pivotal-case-on-the-voting-rights-act/