In a victory for Democrats, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday (June 26) allowed a legal challenge to Louisiana’s congressional map to move forward, which calls for the Republican-controlled Legislature to add another majority-Black district to the map.

CBS News reports that the justices rejected an attempt by Louisiana Republicans to reverse a lower court’s decision directing them to redraw district lines. This ruling lifts the high court’s stay that it put in place last year that blocked the district court’s order for state Republicans to fix the voting boundaries before the 2022 midterm elections.

The map used for Louisiana’s November 2022 election has white majorities in five of six districts that are held by Republicans, according to the Associated Press. Democrats said it was unfair because Black voters account for one-third of the state’s population.

"Black voters in Louisiana have suffered one election under a congressional map that unlawfully dilutes their political influence. Thankfully, Louisiana is now on track to add an additional minority opportunity district in time for 2024, ensuring that Black Louisianians are finally afforded fair representation in the state's congressional delegation," Abha Khanna, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement, according to CBS News.

In March 2022, the GOP-dominated Louisiana Legislature overrode Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ veto of the Republican-drawn electoral map.

Two groups of Black voters challenged the Republican map in court, arguing that it diluted the voting strength of Black residents in violation of the Voting Rights Act. To be lawful, the Legislature would have to create a second majority-minority congressional district in the state, voting rights advocates said.

A federal district judge agreed with the Black voters groups and ordered the Legislature to redraw the map in time for the 2022 midterm election.

An appeal to that decision was made to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans when the Supreme Court put the issue on hold. The high court’s justices said the appeal could now go forward before next year’s congressional elections.

The Louisiana case was put on hold while the Supreme Court considered a similar voting rights challenge to Alabama's congressional district lines.

In the Alabama case, the Supreme Court ruled June 8 that Alabama’s Republican-controlled Legislature must redraw its map – siding with a lower court. The problem was that the GOP map had just one majority-Black congressional district out of seven in a state where more than one in four residents is Black.

Two of the court’s conservative justices – Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh – voted with the three justices on the court’s liberal wing in a decision that reaffirmed the Voting Rights Act, which the high court gutted in its 2013 Shelby County v. Holder ruling.