Louisiana v. Callais (24-109)
argument 24-109Louisiana v. Callais
Supreme Court of the United States
1h 19m
9 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
official recording ↗
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why does Louisiana argue it must draw a second majority‑Black district under the Voting Rights Act?
We will hear argument first this morning in case twenty four one hundred nine, Louisiana versus Kayle and the consolidated case.
Mr
Awi
Ginya, Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court. Louisiana would rather not be here. We didn't want to be in the emergency docket in 2022. We didn't want to be on the emergency docket in 2024. And today, I mean, God bless my friends on both sides of this case, but we'd rather not be caught between two parties with diametrically opposed visions of what our congressional map should look like. But this has become life as usual for the States under this Court's voting cases. question today is how do we get out of this predicament? Now I think there are at least three ways to do that. First, you should reverse on standing grounds, because the only theory of harm in the red brief is that our black representative of District six will play into racial stereotypes by favoring the black voters of District six.
Second, you should reverse on racial predominance, because the district court wrongly assumed that our intentional creation of a majority black district in light of the Robinson decisions automatically established racial predominance. And third, you should reverse on the good reasons inquiry, because the district court wrongly, in our view, believed that The Robinson decisions played no role in the strong basis in evidence inquiry. And in the end, I want to emphasize that the larger picture here is important because in an election year we faced the prospect of a federal court drawn map that placed in jeopardy the Speaker of the House, the House Majority Leader, and our representative on the Appropriations Committee.
And so in light of those facts, we made the politically rational decision. We drew our own map to protect them. This court's breathing room precedents allow that decision. I welcome the court's questions.
So as I understand your argument, you accept we are to accept that the courts, the Robinson court, required that there be two districts and that your only interest is in preserving uh two incumbents uh in north uh east uh Louisiana.
That's correct, Your Honor. I mean, we have two Article III Court decisions that say the VRA likely requires Louisiana to draw a second majority black district. Those were the facts presented to us. In light of those decisions, we said, well, we can't allow the Federal Court to draw the Robinson illustrative maps because that would have placed Julia Letlow in a majority Democrat district. And so we took matters into our own hands and said, we're going to protect our most high profile incumbents, draw our own MAC that ensures that Speaker Johnson and Representative Lettlow remain in Congress.
So in order for us to uh for to to use that line, wouldn't we have to accept that the district court was right, uh the Robinson Court was correct?
Your Honor, I think the way this case has been litigated, the way it comes to the court, the plaintiffs have not put on a pseudo-VRA case to say that the Robinson courts were wrongly decided. I mean, of course, as you know, in the Robinson litigation, we took the position that we should have prevailed. We lost. We lost on those arguments. And at the end of the day, I think in the strict scrutiny analysis that this court's case is set out. The question is, do we have a good reason in relying on what the federal courts told us? That the VRA likely required. And I think that's the fundamental error. If you look at pages 53A to 66A of RJS appendix, that's the District Court's Good Reasons analysis. It says not one word about the Robinson decisions.
And with all d with all respect to the District Court, I think that's not how the Good Reasons Inquiry runs. I mean I think fundamentally when you have Article III courts telling you that this is what the VRA likely requires, a Rational state is going to run with exactly what the Federal Court says. We're in the business of complying with Federal Court decisions. And when they told us that we needed to draw a second majority black district, that's what we did.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why does Louisiana argue it must draw a second majority‑Black district under the Voting Rights Act?
0:00–11:02
2
How do the parties define a “good reason” for the state to comply with Section 2?
11:02–20:01
3
What is the significance of the Robinson decisions for this case?
20:01–29:28
4
Does political motive outweigh racial predominance in the remedial map?
29:28–39:36
5
How does the Court’s “breathing‑room” doctrine affect Louisiana’s map‑drawing flexibility?
39:36–48:22
6
What role of compactness and traditional redistricting criteria in evaluating the remedial district?
48:22–57:52
7
How might the Court apply strict scrutiny to the state’s proposed district?
57:52–1:08:28
8
If the Robinson precedent were found wrong, would that still justify Louisiana’s map?
1:08:28–1:19:02