The Supreme Court on Monday allowed a lower court to consider directing Louisiana to redraw its congressional maps to create two majority Black districts.

The decision, which lifts the high court’s hold on Louisiana’s redistricting case, follows a 5-4 ruling earlier this month that requires Alabama to redraw its congressional maps to create two majority Black districts in accordance with the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Louisiana and Alabama each had only one majority Black congressional district. Voters in both states sued, arguing that the states should have a second majority Black district, based on 2020 census data.

The Supreme Court said without comment that Louisiana’s case can “proceed before the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for review in the ordinary course and in advance of the 2024 congressional elections in Louisiana.”

The district court had ordered Louisiana to redraw its map of six districts to include a second majority Black one after finding that 33% of the state’s population is Black.

Louisiana had appealed the finding, and the high court had blocked the district court’s ruling while it weighed the matter in the Alabama dispute.

In the Alabama case, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority, saying Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act compels states to make sure their voting processes are “equally open” to all by ensuring that minorities have at least the same opportunities as others.

The court’s majority reasoned that Blacks’ voting power was illegally diluted when the map split them among several districts and left just one in which they were the dominant voting force.

The majority, siding with lower courts, said Alabama’s map violates the law under the court’s precedents for judging district lines.

• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.