Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed Senate Bill 121 (SB 121) into law on Friday, approving a new congressional map that dismantles a majority-Black district.

The new map eliminates Louisiana’s second majority-Black congressional district, reverting the state largely to the configuration it used for the 2022 elections: five safe Republican seats and a single Democratic-leaning seat anchored in New Orleans. The signing comes just one month after the US Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down the state’s previous map and significantly narrowed the reach of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which was the primary legal tool that minority voters relied on for six decades to challenge discriminatory maps.

Callais‘s practical effect was immediate. The day after the decision, Landry declared a state of emergency and suspended the state’s congressional primary to allow redistricting. Over 42,000 absentee ballots had already been cast, and the move had no clear precedent in American history. “In my almost three decades of election work, it is completely unprecedented to stop an election that is underway,” said Chad Dunn, an attorney with the UCLA Voting Rights Project. Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias, whose firm challenged the suspension, warned it would “set a precedent that would fundamentally and forever subvert the people’s ability to trust and rely on an orderly democratic system.” President Trump praised Landry on Truth Social for “moving so quickly” on Louisiana’s congressional redistricting.

SB 121 was approved by the Louisiana Senate along party lines and passed the House before reaching Landry’s desk. The new map largely restores the 2022 configuration: five districts that lean Republican and a single majority-Black, Democratic-leaning New Orleans-based district, currently held by Democratic Rep. Troy Carter. The second majority-Black district won by Cleo Fields in 2024 is eliminated. The bill takes effect immediately for purposes of qualifying for the 2026 congressional elections.

Various civil rights groups submitted a joint letter opposing the bill to the Louisiana House ahead of final passage. They argue that SB 121 mirrors the 2022 map that federal courts had already found likely violated the VRA. “This decision is a profound betrayal of the legacy of the civil rights movement,” Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said of the Callais ruling.

Democratic lawmakers responded similarly. The Congressional Black Caucus wrote that the Court had “effectively signed the death certificate of the Voting Rights Act, undoing decades of Black progress.” Former US Senate candidate in Louisiana Gary Chambers Jr. testified before the Senate committee during hearings on the bill. “If you are taking seats from Black people, which we are entitled to by the Constitution of this country, then you are a thief in my opinion,” Chambers said.

Louisiana is not alone. Following Callais, Tennessee eliminated its sole Democratic-held, majority-Black seat in Memphis. The governors of Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama have indicated similar plans. Critics describe these as a coordinated Republican effort to maximize House seats ahead of the 2026 midterms. They argue that Callais is a legal cover to undo the minority-opportunity districts that years of VRA litigation had produced.