Eric Holder Calls on Supreme Court to Uphold Precedent, Protect Louisiana’s Fair Map

For Immediate Release
November 4, 2024
Contact
Madia Coleman
coleman@redistrictingfoundation.org

Washington, D.C. – Today, Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States, issued the following statement in response to the Supreme Court of the United States announcing it will hear oral arguments in the consolidated cases of Robinson v. Callais and Louisiana v. Callais, a case that will determine not only the future of Louisiana’s Voting Rights Act (VRA)-compliant congressional map, but also could impact the future of Section 2 of the VRA itself:  

“This should not be a difficult case for the Supreme Court to resolve. This is, after all, a Court that just last year affirmed the validity of essentially the same enforcement section of the Voting Rights Act.

“All Louisianians deserve, and by existing law are guaranteed, equal representation in Congress.  Federal law, the Supreme Court’s own precedent, and basic fairness dictate that Black Louisianians vote on truly representative and fair maps. For far too long race has been used—and continues to be used—to deny American citizens of that most basic feature of our democracy. 

“The current map provides equal representation for all voters in the state and must be maintained. A decision that does not recognize that fact or that weakens the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would signal an alarming retreat into a past that so many have fought so long and so hard to pull the country from. The eyes of the nation will be on the Court.”

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND: 

Last year, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in Allen v. Milligan to uphold Section 2 of the VRA, and the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF), the 501(c)(3) affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), played a central role in that victory.  Louisiana’s own VRA-compliant map was enacted following that decision and as a result of two years of litigation initiated by the NRF, challenging the previously gerrymandered map. 

Additional background on the prior litigation and the NRF’s engagement in it is available here. 

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