WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday will hear arguments on whether the congressional district map Louisiana used for the 2024 elections should be used again.

State lawmakers last year adopted a map that created a second majority-Black district that stretches from Baton Rouge to Shreveport and taps into the Lafayette and Alexandria metro areas. A group of non-African Americans challenged the map, saying race was too great a factor in its adoption.

The state says politics was a major factor. Lawmakers wanted to preserve seats for House Speaker Mike Johnson, then minority leader Steve Scalise and northeastern Louisiana lawmaker Julia Letlow, who serves on the powerful Appropriations Committee.

The decision sacrificed the seat of Republican Rep. Garret Graves, who didn't back Gov. Jeff Landry in the 2023 governor's race.

A federal court tossed out the 2024 map, but the U.S. Supreme Court told Louisiana to use it anyway until it could take up the case. That happens on Monday.

"Inclusive representation is not just an ideal, it is the foundation of a healthy democracy. When every voice is heard, regardless of race, our government becomes stronger, more just, and more accountable to the people it serves, and in a state where black communities have shaped the culture, the economy, and the history. Louisiana's Congressional districts must reflect that reality and anything less would be a betrayal of democracy itself," Alanah Odoms, Executive Director of ACLU of Louisiana, said.

About one-third of Louisiana's population is Black, but all but one of its six U.S. House members were white until the new map was used last November. Then state-Sen. Cleo Fields won the seat, giving Louisiana two Black House members, along with Troy Carter of New Orleans.

"The district was created and it looks the way it looks because of politics. There are members of the legislature who wanted to preserve certain interests and the courts ruled that it's okay as long as it complies with the Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act abides that you can not eliminate or go out of your way to not create a majority-minority district. If there is a way to do it that complies with the principles of redistricting, compactness and commonality, then you should," Fields said.

The map struck down last year is similar to one deemed unconstitutional in 1993. Geographers and political scientists say it is difficult to draw maps with a second predominantly Black district because of population patterns.

The state's brief to the U.S. Supreme Court said it seemed that the 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson that let Louisiana use race as a factor in setting boundaries had turned into a mandate.

"Happily, Louisiana today is nothing like Plessy’s Louisiana. Yet, the cruel irony is that Louisiana today is not just permitted (as the Plessy majority believed) to sort its citizens based on the color of their skin—it is required to do so, at least to some unspecified degree," lawyers for the state wrote.

Louisiana's congressional district map from 2022 was thrown out, too. A federal judge said it concentrated too many black voters in a district that combined the Baton Rouge and New Orleans metro areas.