Supreme Court ducks, leaving Louisiana redistricting stuck in uncertainty

The Supreme Court

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday backed away from a confrontation with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and its efforts to delay the redrawing of Louisiana’s congressional map ahead of the 2024 election.

The case has been widely watched, not just because it could produce an additional Democratic seat in the House, but because the Fifth Circuit’s actions in the case were seen as a defiant challenge to the Supreme Court’s authority.

On Thursday, however, the justices, without explanation or noted dissent, declined to block a highly unusual legal maneuver by the Fifth Circuit that could prevent the creation of a second majority Black district in time for the 2024 election.

But in a concurrence, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote to “emphasize” that “nothing in our decision not to summarily reverse the Fifth Circuit should be taken to endorse the practice” used by the appeals court to delay the redistricting process “in these or similar circumstances.”

Thursday’s decision was a turnaround for the high court, which, in a similar case in June, ordered the state of Alabama to draw a second competitive district for Black voters. Following that decision, the justices ordered Louisiana to go ahead with its efforts to draw a new map that would comply with the rules set down in the Alabama case.

Now, however, the the justices have declined to intervene further, at least for now, potentially allowing the Fifth Circuit to delay the redistricting process, even as 2024 election deadlines loom.

The Louisiana redistricting dispute centers on the fact that, as of now, the…