The U.S. Supreme Court has put a temporary hold on a lower court's order for the creation of a second majority Black congressional district in Louisiana.
The order by the high court, released Tuesday with dissents from the three liberal justices, comes after the lower court found that a newly drawn map of voting districts for Louisiana's six seats in the U.S. House of Representatives would likely violate the Voting Rights Act by diluting the votes of Black voters.
The justices have paused the drawing of a new voting district until the high court rules next term in a separate but related redistricting case about Alabama's new congressional map. The court, which is hearing oral arguments in the Alabama case in October, put out a similar order for that state's map in February and has now also agreed to hear this Louisiana redistricting case.
As with Alabama, the delay ordered by the Supreme Court means that midterm elections in Louisiana have to take place this year using maps that lower courts have found are likely to hurt the power of Black voters.
In Louisiana, the map for this year's House races has white voters making up the majority in five out of six districts, as approved by the state's Republican-controlled legislature.
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