In a decisive move to protect the rights of minority voters, Attorney General Schwalb, alongside a coalition of 20 state attorneys general, is taking a stand before the U.S. Supreme Court. The coalition urges the Court to allow states to exercise their primary responsibility in redistricting and to uphold maps that comply with the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in light of the case Louisiana v. Callais. Schwalb, coupled with New York Attorney General Letitia James, is at the forefront of this push to support Louisiana's efforts in creating congressional maps that include two majority-Black districts.
According to a brief obtained by the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, the case stems from a federal court ruling in 2022 that declared Louisiana's existing congressional map likely to dilute Black voters' power. The Louisiana legislature responded in 2024 by enacting a new map with an additional majority-Black district to address these concerns. However, this move was subsequently challenged by a group of non-African American voters who claimed the map was racially gerrymandered. The conflicting court orders between different jurisdictions have put Louisiana in a difficult position, prompting the intervention of the Supreme Court to resolve the constitutional dispute.
"Louisiana legislators fixed a voting regime that likely diluted the votes of Black residents by adopting a map that fairly—and finally—enfranchises Black voters," Attorney General Schwalb said on the official website. "As a matter of law, states must have the flexibility to address racial discrimination in order to comply with the Voting Rights Act." His statement underscores the urgency for the Supreme Court to uphold the state's ability to draw districts in compliance with federal law while protecting minority voters' participation in the democratic process.
The coalition's brief rigorously defends the principle that state legislatures should have extensive "breathing room" to create legislative maps that address likely violations of the VRA. This comes after a series of legal challenges and arguments, including an amicus brief filed by Alabama and several other states, seeking to overthrow longstanding voting rights precedents. The attorneys general are pushing firmly to convince the Court not to entertain such arguments, which they believe would drastically affect the settled interpretation of Section 2 of the VRA and disrupt states' longstanding reliance on this legal framework.
The full amicus brief, presented in part by Assistant Attorney General Mark Rucci and Solicitor General Caroline Van Zile, is accompanied by the signatures of attorneys general from states including California, Illinois, and New York. They all stand in concordance with Louisiana's position, highlighting a nationwide call to preserve the integrity of the Voting Rights Act, and thereby fortifying the pillars upon which the nation's democracy is built.
