WASHINGTON — Expressing optimism ahead of the 2024 elections, state lawmakers have formally petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to approve a congressional map explicitly designed to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court.

Following a 2023 judicial mandate to draw two majority-Black districts, the legislature submitted a revised map featuring one district at 50.65 percent and a second at 39.9 percent. Officials noted this successfully met the court's alternative metric of providing "something quite close to it."

"We feel we have fully respected the judicial process by adjusting the district lines while guaranteeing the exact same electoral outcome," a legislative spokesperson said, defending a map projected to maintain six out of seven Republican-held seats. "We are counting on the court's conservative majority to realize that strictly enforcing their own previous rulings would be incredibly inconvenient for our candidates."

The latest submission builds on a reliable procedural loop established in 2021, in which the legislature passes a map diluting minority voting power, waits for federal courts to block it under the Voting Rights Act, and then submits a nearly identical proposal in a fresh folder.