By John Kruzel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a bid by Louisiana officials and civil rights groups to preserve an electoral map that raised the number of Black-majority congressional districts in a legal challenge by a group of voters who called themselves “non-African American.”
The justices took up appeals of a decision by a panel of three federal judges that found that the map laying out Louisiana’s six U.S. House of Representatives districts – with two Black-majority districts, up from one previously – likely violated the U.S. Constitution’s promise of equal protection.
The Supreme Court in May allowed the map to be used in Tuesday’s election that will decide control of the House. Its decision to hear the appeal does not change that. The court is expected to hear arguments in the case and issue a decision by the end of June.
Stuart Naifeh, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, one of the civil rights groups involved in the case, said, “We look forward to continuing to defend the rights of Black voters to elect their candidates of choice in the Supreme Court.”