The Supreme Court on Monday weighed whether a Louisiana congressional map that includes two majority-black districts for the first time in decades is a lawful effort to comply with the Voting Rights Act or an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

The Supreme Court on Monday hears an unusual case in which civil rights groups are in a tentative alliance with Republican officials in defending a Louisiana congressional map that includes two majority Black districts for the first time in decades.

The justices took up an appeal brought by the state over its efforts to draw a map while being sued from the left and right about whether it appropriately considered race in doing so.

Louisiana used nitrogen gas to put a man to death Tuesday evening for a killing decades ago, marking the first time the state has used the method as it resumed executions after a 15-year hiatus.

Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, authorities said, adding the nitrogen gas had flowed for 19 minutes during what one official characterized as a “flawless” execution.

The Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote declined to stop Louisiana from carrying out its first execution in 15 years later Tuesday with Justice Neil Gorsuch joining the court’s three liberal justices in agreeing to delay it.

Jessie Hoffman, 46, is set to be executed for the 1996 kidnapping, rape and murder of Molly Elliott, making Louisiana the second state to carry out an execution by nitrogen gas. The Supreme Court has also declined to step in since Alabama began employing the method last year. 

The Trump administration has dropped a lawsuit that sought to cut toxic emissions from a facility in a highly polluted area of Louisiana known as “Cancer Alley.”

In 2023, the Biden administration filed a lawsuit against Denka Performance Elastomer in an effort to get it to cut down its emissions of chloroprene.

Chloroprene is a chemical that’s used in the production of neoprene, a material that is used to make wetsuits, hoses and adhesives. The EPA considers chloroprene to be a likely carcinogen.  

A state grand jury in Louisiana has indicted a New York doctor for providing abortion pills to a Louisiana resident. The case appears to be the first time criminal charges have been filed against an abortion provider for sending pills into a state with an abortion ban.

The vehicles used in two separate incidents, the deadly New Orleans attack and the explosion in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, were rented via the same app, a peer-to-peer service called Turo, the company said. 

The deadly New Orleans terror attack and the Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on New Year’s Day have at least one connection — the car-sharing app Turo.

While officials have indicated that they have no evidence so far that the two incidents may be linked, investigators have determined the pickup truck used by a terrorist on Bourbon Street and the exploding Tesla truck were both procured using Turo.

Turo is a platform that allows users to rent vehicles from trusted hosts that are registered with the site.