On April 4, 2023, in baton rouge, Louisiana, the Louisiana State Capitol stood in a prominent position. Stephen smith/Associated Press CNN At the same time, the Supreme Court is working out a timetable for submitting a proposal for a new congressional plan in case the Supreme Court itself has to draw a new map.
"Therefore, if the Louisiana legislature fails to draw up a new map before June 3, 2024, the court intends to order the use of the provisional remedial congressional constituency demarcation map on June 4, 2024," the court said in its order on Tuesday, noting that it may appoint an expert to assist in this process.
The scheduling order issued by a three-judge court in Louisiana is the latest development of a chaotic dispute over the map of Congress, which may affect the control of the US House of Representatives next year.
The map drawn by the Louisiana legislature after the 2020 census-in a state where about one-third of the population is African-American, the map only includes a black-majority area-was ruled by another federal court last year as possibly violating the voting rights act.
The legislature adopted a new map this year to create a second black-majority area out of a total of six areas. The map was questioned by voters, some of whom were famous white Republicans, and was overturned by a panel of three judges last week.
Nancy Landry, Louisiana's secretary of state, said that the state needs to get a map before May 15th so that it can manage this year's election. But the court pointed out on Tuesday that the state's lawyers had previously said in another case that Louisiana could prepare for the November election as long as it had a map before the end of May.
It is expected that at least some litigants involved in the current case will ask the Supreme Court to intervene this week and let the plan passed by legislators earlier this year be used in this year's election.