Look Closer at Alito in the Louisiana v. Callais Decision

Earlier this week, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson accused the court of unshackling itself from constraints by allowing the Louisiana to move forward expeditiously in their effort to create new, constitutional maps (Supreme Court).

Justice Alito Torches Justice Jackson’s Dissent in Louisiana Case

The Wall Street Journal looks at an interesting footnote:

Justice Alito writes, “That constitutional question was argued and conferenced nearly seven months ago.” He’s calling unusual attention to the fact that the Justices privately discussed and decided the constitutional issue in Louisiana v. Callais shortly after they heard the oral argument on Oct. 15, 2025. That means the Court waited an unusually long time to release its decision. Why the delay if the Court’s ultimate ruling was clear? Opinions in cases the Court hears in October are often released early in the next year. Could it have been because concurring Justices other than Thomas and Gorsuch had demanded legal complications that Justice Alito painstakingly included in his opinion? Or did Justice Elena Kagan slow-roll her furious dissent? We don’t know, but it’s a relevant question given that the later the decision was announced the more states would have passed their primary election deadlines under the unconstitutional map. In their concurrence last week, Justices Thomas and Gorsuch said they would have preferred a much more straightforward analysis that the Voting Rights Act bans all racial gerrymanders. The footnote suggests some pique by Justice Alito about the Court’s long gestation on Callais, and understandably so since Justice Jackson is accusing the majority of playing politics (Wall Street Journal).

Justice Alito’s Intriguing Footnote

He hints at a delay in releasing the Louisiana v. Callais decision.

Exchanges at the Supreme Court are getting testier, as one this week between Associate Justices Samuel Alito and Ketanji Brown Jackson attests. But more intriguing than the frosty back and forth is the footnote Justice Alito dropped in his opinion.

The exchange was related to the Court’s Monday order letting Louisiana move ahead on redrawing its Congressional map to replace the one the Court last week found unconstitutional. Justice Jackson filed a dissent from Monday’s order, using the highly charged rhetoric that is becoming her habit.