The U.S. Supreme Court’s Thursday decision to invalidate Louisiana’s majority-Black 2nd Congressional District has unleashed a cascade of redistricting activity across the South and beyond, with Republican governors and legislatures moving swiftly to capitalize on the ruling before the November midterm elections. The ruling — which weakened the Voting Rights Act’s prohibition on racial vote dilution — gave GOP officials in at least six states a new legal footing to redraw district lines in ways that could reshape control of the closely divided U.S. House.
In Louisiana, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry suspended the May 16 congressional primary hours after the Supreme Court’s opinion, postponing House elections while allowing other contests to proceed. A three-judge federal court panel that had handled the appealed case separately ordered the same suspension. Rulings late Friday in Baton Rouge rejected bids by a Democratic candidate, voters, and civil rights organizations to block Landry’s order; the plaintiffs argued the governor lacked authority to scrap the primary and that thousands of absentee ballots had already been cast. Republican legislative leaders said they are prepared to pass new U.S. House districts — and set a new primary date — before the legislative session ends in a month.
Alabama responded with equal speed. Republican Gov. Kay Ivey called a special session to begin Monday to prepare a contingency plan for a special primary, should the Supreme Court grant the state’s emergency motion to lift an injunction blocking a 2023 map that had been ruled an illegal racial gerrymander. Under court order, Alabama currently uses a map that created a near-majority-Black district and elected a second Black representative; the state’s appeal argues that district is itself an illegal racial gerrymander.
In Florida, the GOP-controlled legislature passed new House maps within hours of the high court’s decision. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis had already summoned lawmakers into a special session in anticipation of the ruling. The new map could net the party up to four additional seats and reconstitutes a southeastern Florida district that DeSantis said was created “to help elect a Black representative” in an attempt to comply with the Voting Rights Act. DeSantis has argued that the state’s voter-approved prohibition on racial gerrymandering violates the U.S. Constitution, a question now headed to the courts.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced his own special session late Friday, saying “we owe it to Tennesseans to ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters.” The move followed a pressure campaign from President Donald Trump and other Republicans to dismantle the 9th Congressional District, the state’s only Democratic-held seat, which is anchored in majority-Black Memphis. “We cannot keep doing things like this and calling ourselves a democracy,” Democratic state Sen. Ramesh Akbari said at a news conference outside the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, which includes the preserved motel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968.
Mississippi, which has already held its 2026 House primaries, is eyeing changes to state court districts. Gov. Tate Reeves said a special session will convene about May 20 — 21 days after the Supreme Court ruling — to redraw voting districts for the state Supreme Court. A federal judge last year found the existing maps dilute Black voting power and ordered a redraw. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, by contrast, said it is too late to alter congressional districts for this year’s elections because early voting is already underway, but he added that the high court’s rationale means Georgia must adopt new maps before the 2028 cycle.