By Andrew Chung

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday returned a closely watched legal battle over a map delineating Louisiana's six U.S. House of Representatives districts to a lower court, dismissing a bid by a Republican senior state official to defend the plan in a challenge brought by Black voters.

The justices had taken up the case last year but put it on hold pending their ruling in a similar case from Alabama, which they issued on June 8. The justices dismissed the appeal by Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin of a federal judge's decision that the map drawn by the Republican-led state legislature of the House districts likely discriminated unlawfully based on race.

U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick last year directed Louisiana's legislature create two, rather than just one, House districts where Black voters represent the majority of voters, a decision that could boost Democratic chances of regaining control next year of the House.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)