A new lawsuit is challenging Louisiana’s extraordinary decision to suspend congressional primaries already underway — arguing the state is illegally nullifying votes and plunging an active election into chaos following the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act.

Just one day after the Court struck down the state’s congressional map, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) declared an “emergency” and halted U.S. House primaries — even though absentee ballots had already been cast and early voting was set to begin within days.

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State officials have said the suspension is meant to give lawmakers time to redraw Louisiana’s congressional map after the Supreme Court ruling — opening the door for the GOP-controlled legislature to enact a new gerrymander before the midterms.

Now, voters are asking a federal court to step in immediately, warning that the state’s actions threaten to disenfranchise voters and undermine the integrity of the election itself.

The lawsuit filed Thursday, claims Louisiana crossed various Constitutional lines by stopping an election in progress.

“This Court is asked to do something simple: stop a state from canceling an election that is already underway,” the plaintiffs wrote. “The Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais did not order the May 16 election canceled — and did not authorize it. The judgment in Callais is not yet even final.”

More than 100,000 absentee ballots had been sent to voters across the state, including students and active-duty military members.

Some had already been completed and returned.

“At the moment Callais was decided, an election was already underway,” the complaint adds. “A substantial number of absentee ballots had already been received and cast by qualified electors.”

Despite that, state officials moved forward with suspending only the congressional races — leaving all other contests on the ballot intact.

Voters can still cast ballots for Senate, state offices and constitutional amendments — but any votes for U.S. House races won’t count.

The lawsuit argues that kind of selective cancellation is unconstitutional.

“Treating identically situated voters differently, counting some early ballots and voiding others, or voiding the federal-primary portion of a ballot while counting the same elector’s votes for state Supreme Court and constitutional amendments on the same ballot,” the plaintiffs wrote, violates equal protection.

The lawsuit goes even further, alleging that the decision to suspend only the congressional races — particularly those tied to a majority-Black district — may itself violate federal voting rights protections.

“Suspending only the U.S. House primary while leaving in place” all other races “supports a strong inference of intentional discrimination on the basis of race,” the plaintiffs wrote.

They also argue that the governor does not have the authority to unilaterally suspend a federal election.

“The Elections Clause vests authority to regulate the time, place, and manner of congressional elections in ‘the Legislature,’” the complaint states. “The Governor of Louisiana, acting unilaterally by executive order, is not ‘the Legislature’ for Elections Clause purposes.”

Election experts say the situation is virtually unprecedented.

“In my almost three decades of election work, it is completely unprecedented to stop an election that is underway,” Chad Dunn, an attorney with the UCLA Voting Rights Project, recently told Democracy Docket.

Early, in-person voting is set to begin within days, and without court intervention, Louisiana voters could show up at polling places unsure whether their votes will count — or find that part of their ballot has effectively been erased.

“These harms are not speculative,” the lawsuit warns. ”They are imminent. They are irreparable: once an election day passes, no monetary remedy can restore the franchise.”

The plaintiffs are asking the court for emergency relief to stop the state from enforcing the order and to allow the election to proceed as scheduled — including counting every ballot already cast.