The U.S. Supreme Court late on May 4 took the unusual step of making its recent ruling to limit the use of race in redistricting effective ahead of the usual 32-day waiting period.
The new procedural ruling allows the high court’s landmark April 29 decision in Louisiana v. Callais to take effect immediately. In that case, the court struck down as unconstitutional a congressional map for Louisiana that included a second black-majority district.
There are fewer than 32 days between April 29 and the first U.S. House primary elections that were scheduled for May 16, so if the waiting period were not waived, the primaries would have had to take place using the very same map the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court’s new move might undermine challenges to an April 30 decision by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, to postpone the state’s U.S. House primary elections and seek a new electoral map that complies with the U.S. Constitution. The first primary had been scheduled for May 16, with a second set for June 27.
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