5th circuit

June 8, 2022 - Texas is heading to court to defend new election districts that divide and disempower Black and Latino communities while benefiting the GOP. The districts remain in play for this year's elections, but judges could order new ones before 2024.

November 18, 2021 - Voting rights groups have challenged election districts for the Louisiana Supreme Court, which counts just one Black justice among its seven members. Legislators want to add new districts to settle the suit, but their most recent attempt broke down over the issue of how many should have majority-Black populations.

July 1, 2021 - The president has nominated a record number of people of color to federal courts, but his choice to fill a vacancy on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from the Carolinas, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, is a white man.  

June 15, 2021 - Federal appellate courts in the Deep South are disproportionately white compared to the region's population, but President Joe Biden has pledged to diversify the courts with his nominations. Efforts to expand the region's mostly white state appellate courts could also lead to more diversity on the bench.

May 21, 2021 - Republican state legislators across the South are making it harder for voters to cast a ballot. Voting rights groups and local officials are suing over the changes, which they argue will disparately impact voters of color and those with disabilities. But the judges with the final say are mostly Republicans.

October 22, 2020 - As millions of voters cast ballots this month, federal courts in the South shot down attempts to make voting easier during the pandemic, and some relied on a novel argument giving them more power to overrule state courts. The rulings have led to calls to expand the Supreme Court and lower courts if Democrats take the White House and Senate.