Republican governors across the South moved within days, some within hours, to begin redrawing their states' congressional maps after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana's second majority-Black congressional district in a 6-3 ruling that sharply curtailed the use of race in redistricting.
Louisiana suspended its upcoming House primaries. Tennessee and Alabama called special legislative sessions. Florida's legislature passed a new map and sent it to the governor's desk. Mississippi's governor set a date for a redistricting session. All told, a CBS News analysis found that between one and nine additional GOP-friendly districts could be added across several southern states before the 2026 midterms, with that number expected to grow heading into 2028.
The speed of the response tells you something about how long these states have been waiting for the legal green light.
The case at the center of the cascade is Louisiana v. Callais. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court held that Louisiana's second Black-majority congressional district was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and could not be justified under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The Washington Examiner reported that the Court declined to fully overrule the longstanding Thornburg v. Gingles framework but raised the bar significantly, requiring stricter proof of intentional discrimination and demanding that race be disentangled from politics when drawing district lines.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, was direct:
"Allowing race to play any part in government decisionmaking represents a departure from the constitutional rule that applies in almost every other context."
Justice Elena Kagan, in dissent, warned the decision would gut the Voting Rights Act's protections for minority representation. As AP News reported, Kagan wrote that the Court's "gutting of Section 2 puts that achievement in peril."
The legal and political implications are enormous. Analyses cited in the coverage suggest that between 12 and 19 Democratic-held congressional seats nationwide could face risk if maps are redrawn under the new standard. For a House where control has swung on margins of a handful of seats, that is not a theoretical concern, it is a structural shift.
Louisiana moved first. On Thursday, state officials announced the suspension of the May 16 House primaries. Early voting had been set to begin May 2, and ballots had already been printed. Secretary of State Nancy Landry said on social media:
"Pursuant to 18:401.1(B), I have certified the emergency in light of the Supreme Court ruling. This is a mandatory step prior to the Governor issuing an executive order suspending the upcoming Louisiana U.S. House races."
She added that other primaries would proceed as planned, including the state's Senate race, and that notices about the House primary suspension would be posted at all voting locations.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed an executive order Thursday encouraging the state legislature to pass new congressional maps and schedule elections "as soon as practical." As Fox News reported, Gov. Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill stated that the Court's stay of the previous injunction had automatically terminated, meaning the state was "currently enjoined from carrying out congressional elections under the current map."
Attorney General Murrill told reporters on Wednesday that the state may move to revert to its old map, which included one Black-majority district and favored Republicans in five of six districts. She acknowledged that changing primary dates would be a "big lift." Louisiana is nearly one-third Black, and the old map concentrated most of that population into a single district.
The Supreme Court's landmark 6-3 ruling effectively opened the door for Louisiana to pick up one to two additional Republican-friendly seats.
Florida acted in parallel. A proposed congressional map from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis passed the state legislature on Wednesday and awaits his signature. The map could add as many as four Republican-friendly seats, with changes affecting districts near Tampa, Orlando, and the southeast coast.
DeSantis' general counsel, David Axelman, wrote to state lawmakers arguing that the Supreme Court's reasoning in Callais means Florida no longer has to follow racial requirements embedded in the state constitution's "Fair Districts" Amendments. Axelman's letter drew a direct line between the two situations:
"Much like Louisiana's 'intentional compliance with the court's demands constituted an express acknowledgement that race played a role in the drawing of district lines,' Florida's intentional compliance with the [Fair Districts Amendments] would constitute such an acknowledgement."
Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias pledged to challenge the Florida map in court. Whether that challenge succeeds will test the boundaries of the new legal landscape the Court has created.
Tennessee's response came Friday. Gov. Bill Lee called a special legislative session starting Tuesday to, as he put it, "ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters." The state's redistricting push had been building before the ruling landed.
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, now a gubernatorial candidate, had repeatedly called for the legislature to reconvene and proposed a map that could produce a nine-Republican-to-zero-Democrat congressional delegation. The target is the Memphis-area 9th District held by longtime Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen.
State Rep. Johnny Garrett endorsed the effort bluntly: "Tennessee should do its part in supporting @realDonaldTrump's America First agenda by getting rid of the woke @RepCohen."
President Trump weighed in Thursday, saying he had called Gov. Lee and was told Lee would "work hard to correct the unconstitutional flaw in the Congressional Maps of the Great State of Tennessee." Trump added: "This should give us one extra seat, and help Save our Country from the Radical Left Democrats. Thank you Governor Lee, PUSH HARD!"
Tennessee's congressional primaries are not until August 6, but the qualifying deadline passed in March, which creates procedural complications. Michael Li, senior counsel at the Brennan Center's Democracy Program, raised questions about the logistics and timing:
"There's lots of complications to [schedule another primary]. If you schedule an August primary, like who's going to turn out for another primary in August? There's a lot of variability when you move primaries in different times, and it's expensive."
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced a redistricting session would begin 21 days after the Callais ruling, May 20. He posted on X on Wednesday: "First Dobbs. Now Callais. Just Mississippi and Louisiana down here saving our country!"
Mississippi's primaries already took place in March, which means any new map would require special elections. The state's majority-Black 2nd Congressional District, held by Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, is the obvious focus.
Republican state Auditor Shad White wrote that the ruling "likely opens the door to redrawing Mississippi's congressional districts. Mississippi might no longer have a district drawn to protect Bennie Thompson." Republican state Sen. Kevin Blackwell was more direct: "It's time to erase Bennie Thompson's District."
Not everyone is confident the effort will survive legal scrutiny. Michael McNulty, policy director at the Issue One organization, said a Mississippi redraw would be "unlikely legally" to stand, "but they can try."
Alabama's situation is the most legally complex. In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Allen v. Milligan that an Alabama GOP-supported map violated Section 2 and ordered the state to draw a second Black-majority congressional seat. A court-appointed expert drew the current map in late 2023, giving Alabama two seats with predominantly Black electorates, the 2nd and 7th Districts. Previously, the state had just one Democratic House member.
But after Callais, Alabama moved fast. Attorney General Steve Marshall asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to expedite consideration of the state's pending challenge. He pledged the state would "act as quickly as possible" to "ensure that our congressional maps reflect the will of the people, not a racial quota system the Constitution forbids."
Gov. Kay Ivey initially said Thursday that Alabama was "not in position to have a special session at this time," but expressed hope the Court would be "favorable to Alabama" in light of the new decision. A day later, she reversed course and called for a legislative session starting Monday so lawmakers could schedule special elections if districts are redrawn. She said the state would be "prepared." The rapid state-level scramble reflects how quickly the legal ground shifted.
Alabama's primaries are scheduled for May 19, and the filing deadline passed in January. A federal three-judge panel had already ruled the state's new map violated the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment, and the state appealed to the Supreme Court again.
Democratic Rep. Troy Carter of Louisiana framed the consequences in the starkest terms:
"We can realistically end up having six congressional districts with no African-American, or Democratic representation, it's very possible, given what we've seen happen across this country."
Carter also warned the effects would reach far beyond Louisiana:
"The reality is this is much deeper and much further than Louisiana. This can impact up to 19 or 20 seats in the congressional Black Caucus. It can impact school boards. It can impact city councils, legislative seats. This is, in fact, an explosive move to turn the clock back all the way pre-1965."
Li, the Brennan Center counsel, also raised a strategic question for Republicans rushing to redraw maps before 2026. In a midterm cycle that could be difficult for the party in power, he asked: "If you draw a Trump +7 district or even a Trump +10 district, that may not be enough. So why not wait till an election cycle in 2028 that might be better for your party?"
Congressional Republican leaders appear to have already answered that question. They want the seats now.
The legal and political battles over these maps will play out in courtrooms and statehouses for months. But the direction is clear. The Supreme Court has signaled that the era of drawing congressional districts primarily around race is ending, and Republican governors are not waiting around to see who files the next lawsuit.
For decades, the Voting Rights Act was used to require maps that sorted voters by skin color and called it fairness. The Court just said the Constitution has something different in mind. The states that move fastest will shape what comes next.