Louisiana Senate Votes to Restore 2022 Congressional Map After Supreme Court Ruling

Louisiana's state Senate voted 27-10 on Thursday to effectively restore the state's 2022 congressional map, a move that would eliminate one of the state's two majority-Black districts. The proposal, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Jay Morris, would reshape the 6th Congressional District currently represented by Democratic Rep.

Cleo Fields and redraw it to include Republican-leaning areas. U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision in April in Louisiana v. Callais that struck down the state's previous congressional map and narrowed the grounds for challenging district lines under the Voting Rights Act.

Louisiana's House delegation is made up of four Republicans and two Democrats. Both states still need full legislative approval for the new congressional maps. In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster called a special legislative session for Friday morning to consider a new congressional map that would reshape the state's majority-Black 6th District.

That seat is currently held by Rep. Jim Clyburn, the state's only Democrat in Congress. Republicans hold six of South Carolina's seven congressional seats.

State Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, who voted against extending the session, argued it was already too late in the election cycle to redraw the map with less than two weeks before early voting begins. Candidates have already filed to run in districts that could be changed.

Republican-led legislatures in both Louisiana and South Carolina progressed plans to redraw congressional boundaries this week as part of a wider push by GOP lawmakers encouraged by President Donald Trump to protect and potentially expand their control of Congress.