Federal court challenge to the congressional plan, alleging impermissible dilution of the voting strength of Black voters in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

On June 6, 2022, the court granted a preliminary injunction against the congressional map, which the state appealed.   On June 28, 2022, the state secured a grant of cert. before judgment and a stay from the Supreme Court pending the decision in Milligan v. Merrill.  After the Milligan decision, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition for cert. before judgment as improvidently granted.  The case returned to the Fifth Circuit, which on Nov. 10, 2023, affirmed the trial court’s factual findings and legal conclusions, but found no urgent need for a preliminary injunction any longer.  The court of appeals gave the legislature until Jan. 15, 2024, to either enact a new plan or rest on the old plan and proceed to trial and a final judgment on the merits.

Meanwhile, the trial court had been proceeding toward hearings on a remedial plan; on Sept. 28, 2023, a different Fifth Circuit panel granted a petition for mandamus, vacating the trial court’s planned remedial hearing as too rushed, but allowing the trial court to proceed at a slower pace.  Pursuant to the Fifth Circuit’s Nov. 10 order above, the trial court gave the legislature until Jan. 30, 2024, to either enact a new plan or rest on the old plan and proceed to trial and a final judgment on the merits.

On Jan. 22, 2024, the governor signed a new legislative remedial map, now challenged in Callais v. Landry.  On Apr. 25, 2024, the court dismissed the pending challenge to the superseded plan.