Callais v. Landry

After the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision finding that plaintiffs in Robinson v. Ardoin were likely to succeed in proving that Louisiana’s congressional map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the Louisiana legislature enacted a new congressional map in January 2023 containing two districts with majorities of Black Voting Age Population.

On January 31, 2024, a group of white Louisianians challenged this new map as a racial gerrymander under the Fourteenth amendment. The Chief Judge of the Fifth Circuit assigned a three-judge panel to hear the case.

The Robinson plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU, ACLU of Louisiana, Legal Defense Fund, and Paul Weiss, sought to intervene to defend the map. While the motion was pending, the panel set the case for expedited trial in April 2024. The panel initially denied the motion to intervene except as to any remedial phase should the plaintiffs prevail, but on reconsideration, allowed the Robinson and Galmon plaintiffs to intervene in the liability phase in part, limiting involvement to presenting evidence as to whether race predominated in drawing the 2024 congressional map, and whether, if so, the map meets strict scrutiny. A trial on the merits was held in April 2024. On April 30, 2024, a divided panel of three federal judges overturned Louisiana's congressional map with two majority Black districts. The court held that the case's "non-African American voters" successfully proved that legislators improperly prioritized race when enacting the map during a special legislative session in January 2024. On May 8, 2024, Plaintiffs moved for a stay at the U.S. Supreme Court in order to block the district court's ruling and ensure that Louisiana voters had a map with two majority-Black congressional districts in 2024 elections.

UPDATE: On May 15, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court granted an emergency stay in Robinson v. Callais, which paused enforcement of the district court's decision to strike down Louisiana's map as a racial gerrymander. With the stay in place, Louisiana voters will be able to cast their ballots this November under the map with two majority-Black districts.