Here's what new Black-majority districts in Louisiana and Georgia might look like

It's not just Alabama that will likely have to revamp its congressional map thanks to last week's shocking ruling from the Supreme Court. Several other states that have also been accused of discriminating against African Americans or Latinos may be compelled to follow suit, with Louisiana and Georgia at the top of the list. If civil rights advocates are successful, both states would have to create new districts where Black voters would be able to elect their candidates of choice, a development that would likely increase diversity in Congress and swell the ranks of Democrats in the closely divided House.

Litigants have in fact already met with success. In Louisiana, a federal district court judge ruled last year that Republican lawmakers had likely violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by failing to draw a second congressional district that would allow Black voters to elect their preferred candidates and ordered the state to correct the problem. But just before the court could implement a remedial map in time for the midterms, the Supreme Court put the case on hold pending the outcome of the Alabama lawsuit, which rested on similar claims.

Prior to the Supreme Court's intervention, Judge Shelly Dick had given the legislature the first crack at drafting a new map, but Republicans failed to take action by the court's deadline. The judge then asked the parties to submit their own proposals for maps that would comply with the VRA. Republicans once again refused to participate, but the plaintiffs, led by the state branch of the NAACP, presented a plan drawn by redistricting expert Anthony Fairfax.