* Starting off with some background from SCOTUS blog…

The Supreme Court [last month], in the case of Louisiana v. Callais, struck down a Louisiana congressional map that a group of voters who describe themselves as “non-African American” had challenged as the product of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. By a vote of 6-3, the justices left in place a ruling by a federal court that barred the state from using the map, which had created a second majority-Black district, in future elections. Although Wednesday’s ruling did not strike down a key provision of the federal Voting Rights Act, as Louisiana and the challengers had asked the court to do, Justice Elena Kagan suggested in her dissent (which was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson) that the majority opinion by Justice Samuel Alito had rendered the provision “all but a dead letter.”

The decision was the latest, and presumably final, chapter in a long-running dispute arising from Louisiana’s efforts to adopt a new congressional map in the wake of the 2020 census. The first map that the state adopted, in 2022, had one majority-Black district out of the six allotted to the state. A group of Black voters – who comprise roughly one-third of the state’s population – went to federal court, where they alleged that the map violated Section 2 of the VRA, which prohibits discrimination in voting. […]

“In sum,” Alito concluded, “because the Voting Rights Act did not require Louisiana to create an additional majority-minority district, no compelling interest justified the State’s use of race in creating SB8. That map is an unconstitutional gerrymander, and its use would violate the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.” […]

But the requirements that the court imposes on Wednesday, Kagan contended, “will effectively insulate any practice, including any districting scheme, said by a State to have any race-neutral justification. That justification can sound in traditional districting criteria, or else can sound in politics and partisanship. As to the latter, the State need do nothing more than announce a partisan gerrymander,” she said. “Assuming the State has left behind no smoking-gun evidence of a race-based motive (an almost fanciful prospect), Section 2 will play no role.”

* NPR earlier this month…

Tennessee Republicans on Thursday passed a new congressional map that would crack Shelby County — home to majority-Black Memphis — into three different districts, in an effort to eliminate the state’s lone remaining Democratic-held seat. […]

The state is the first to pass a new congressional map after the U.S. Supreme Court last week weakened the Voting Rights Act’s protections against racial discrimination in redistricting. […]

Tennessee GOP lawmakers defended the new map, saying their goal is partisan, to send an all-Republican delegation to Washington, D.C. […]

President Trump has urged Tennessee and other GOP-led states to redraw their maps before this fall’s midterm elections, as part of his mid-decade redistricting push. Earlier Thursday, Tennessee Gov. Lee signed a bill that repealed a state law prohibiting mid-decade redistricting.

* The Associated Press yesterday…

The US Supreme Court on Monday set the stage for Alabama to eliminate one of two largely Black congressional districts before this year’s midterm elections, creating an opening for Republicans to gain an additional U.S. House seat in a partisan battle for control of the closely divided chamber.

The decision follows a Supreme Court ruling in April that struck down a majority-Black U.S. House district in Louisiana as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, significantly weakening a provision of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Alabama officials had pointed to the Louisiana case as reason for the Supreme Court to end a judicial order to use a court-imposed House map until after the 2030 census. The high court on Monday overturned that order and directed a lower court to reconsider the case in light of the Louisiana decision. That could free the state to instead use a map approved in 2023 by the Republican-led legislature that includes only one district where Black residents comprise a majority.

Anticipating a court reversal, Alabama officials recently enacted a law allowing it to void the results of a May 19 primary for some congressional districts and instead hold a new primary under the revised district boundaries. Alabama had asked for an expedited decision ahead of the primary.

* Moving on to Missouri and South Carolina…

Missouri’s top court is hearing an important legal challenge [today] to one of President Donald Trump’s earliest redistricting successes while lawmakers in Louisiana and South Carolina weigh whether to become the most recent Republican states to redraw U.S. House districts ahead of the midterm elections.

Rather than waning, a national redistricting battle that began 10 months ago has intensified as the November elections draw nearer — inflamed by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened the federal Voting Rights Act and provided grounds for states to try to eliminate voting districts with large minority populations.

Missouri was the second Republican state after Texas to heed Trump’s call last year to redraw congressional districts to help the GOP win additional seats in the midterms. At issue before the Missouri Supreme Court is whether the new districts violate a state constitutional requirement to be compact, and whether they can remain in place for this year’s elections despite an initiative petition seeking to force a public referendum.

In South Carolina, the issue facing Republican lawmakers is whether redrawing the state’s lone Democratic-held seat could open the door to a clean sweep for Republicans or backfire with additional losses by making more districts competitive for Democrats. State senators have yet to decide whether to allow consideration of a redistricting plan put forth in the House after the legislature’s regular work ends Thursday.

* The Tampa Bay Times…

After a mid-cycle redistricting push to solidify Republican rule, Black voters in Tampa Bay find themselves splintered into five sprawling districts. The new map dilutes Black voting power, which leans Democratic, and threatens the region’s lone blue seat. […]

The 14th Congressional District, a Democratic stronghold held by U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, saw dramatic change.

Under the old map, the district covered the eastern half of St. Petersburg and much of Tampa. Its population was 17.7% Black. Now, its boundaries cut out East Tampa, parts of Ybor City and all of Pinellas County, including southern St. Petersburg.

The district lost more than 47,000 Black residents, whose share of the population fell to 11.5%, according to 2020 Census population data that states are required to use when redistricting.

District 13, a Pinellas County district that Republican U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna carried by nearly 10 points in her most recent election, lost more than 6,000 Black residents. The redistricting makes it even redder.

* More…

* Stateline | Supreme Court voting rights ruling set to reshape local power from statehouses to school boards: “While everyone has been focusing on what this means for the power in Congress, there’s a whole other sector of power that it changes,” said Davante Lewis, an elected member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission and one of the litigants in a case that pushed Louisiana to create the congressional maps that were eventually struck down in the Callais ruling. “This is a decision on who gets to serve on a school board, who gets to serve on a city council, who gets representation in the judiciary,” Lewis said.

* NPR | Southern Republicans redistrict after Supreme Court rules, Dems lose big in Virginia: The Supreme Court of Virginia Friday nullified the results of a special election on April 21, where 1.6 million Virginians approved redistricting that Democrats hoped would win them four more House seats. In a 4-3 ruling, the court said the legislature followed the wrong process for putting the question, an amendment to the state constitution, on the ballot. Meanwhile, Southern Republicans rushed to redraw their states’ congressional voting maps after an April 29 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which weakened voting rights protections for minority communities.

* AP | Republicans have gained an edge in a US House redistricting battle. What states are taking action?: So far, Republicans believe they could win up to 14 additional seats from new districts in Texas, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee. Democrats, meanwhile, think they could gain up to six seats from new districts in California and Utah. But those tallies presume past voting patterns hold in November. Historically, the president’s party tends to lose seats in the midterms. Democrats need to gain just a few seats in November to wrest control of the House from Republicans, which would give them greater power to oppose Trump.

* The Hill | These are the Southern red states moving to redistrict after Supreme Court ruling: Tennessee lawmakers successfully shepherded through a new congressional map this past week that carves up the state’s only majority-Black district and threatens the lone Democrat in the nine-member House delegation. The new map splits Rep. Steve Cohen’s (D) Memphis-based 9th Congressional District into three congressional districts, while further dividing the city of Nashville into five districts.

* Bloomberg | Democrats Still Hold House Edge Despite Redistricting Setbacks: Democrats currently have a six-point advantage in a generic congressional ballot test, according to Nate Silver’s “Silver Bulletin” newsletter. Data journalist G. Elliott Morris said Sunday that Democrats need to win the nationwide House vote by four percentage points to win control of the chamber. “Republicans have gained a new structural advantage through redistricting,” the nonpartisan Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter wrote Monday. “We continue to rate Democrats as favored to win control of the House, but they are no longer overwhelming favorites.”

* The Hill | With few options left in redistricting, Democrats ramp up affordability message: The House Democratic Caucus will huddle as a group Thursday in the Capitol to chart its next steps on each front. And party leaders insist the Virginia ruling, while a setback, is no permanent barrier to achieving their goals. “We remain undeterred,” Jeffries wrote Monday in a letter to fellow Democrats. “Our effort to forcefully push back against the Republican redistricting scheme will not slow down. We are just getting started.”