By MARK SHERMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Louisiana on Wednesday abandoned its defense of a political map that elected two Black members of Congress and instead called on the Supreme Court to reject any consideration of race in redistricting in a case that could bring major changes to the Voting Rights Act.

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Appealing to a conservative-dominated court that has been skeptical of the use of race, Louisiana is advancing a position that could allow it and other Republican-led states in the South to draw new maps that eliminate virtually all majority Black districts, which have been Democratic strongholds, voting rights experts said.

“If Louisiana’s argument prevailed at the Supreme Court, it would almost certainly lead to a whiter and less representative Congress, as well as significantly less minority representation across the country in legislatures, city councils, and across other district-based bodies,” UCLA law professor Richard Hasen said in an email.

The state’s high court filing was in response to the justices’ call for new briefing and arguments in the Louisiana case, which they first heard earlier this year. Arguments will take place on Oct. 15.

“Race-based redistricting is fundamentally contrary to our Constitution,” Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill wrote.

Voting rights groups defending the second Black majority district urged the court to reject the state’s constitutional challenge.

A second round of arguments is a rare occurrence at the Supreme Court, and sometimes presages a major change by the high court. The Citizens United decision in 2010 that led to dramatic increases in independent spending in U.S. elections came after it was argued a second time.

When the court first heard the Louisiana case in March, several of the court’s conservative justices suggested they could vote to throw out the map and make it harder, if not impossible, to bring redistricting lawsuits under the Voting Rights Act.

The case involves the interplay between race and politics in drawing political boundaries.

Just two years ago, the court, by a 5-4 vote, affirmed a ruling that found a likely violation of the Voting Rights Act in a similar case over Alabama’s congressional map. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined their three more liberal colleagues in the outcome.

That decision led to new districts in both states that sent two more Black Democrats to Congress.

Now, though, the court has asked the parties to answer a potentially big question: “Whether the state’s intentional creation of a second majority-minority congressional district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution.”

Those amendments, adopted in the aftermath of the Civil War, were intended to bring about political equality for Black Americans and gave Congress the authority to take all necessary steps. Nearly a century later, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, called the crown jewel of the civil rights era, to finally put an end to persistent efforts to prevent Black people from voting in the former states of the Confederacy.

While the high court has pared back the law in the past dozen years, it has sustained the provision that allows challenges to political districts that can be shown to deprive minority voters of the chance to elect representatives of their choice.

In the arguments in March, Louisiana defended the congressional map as an effort to comply with court rulings and preserve districts held by powerful Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson.

The court fight over Louisiana’s congressional districts has lasted three years. Two maps were blocked by lower courts, and the Supreme Court has intervened twice. Most recently, the court ordered the new map to be used in the 2024 election.

The state’s Republican-dominated legislature drew a new congressional map in 2022 to account for population shifts reflected in the 2020 Census. But the changes effectively maintained the status quo of five Republican-leaning majority white districts and one Democratic-leaning majority Black district.

Civil rights advocates won a lower court ruling that the districts likely discriminated against Black voters.

The state eventually drew a new map. But white Louisiana voters claimed in their separate lawsuit that race was the predominant factor driving it. A three-judge court agreed, leading to the current high court case.

Brooks Lee has played shortstop in nearly every game since Carlos Correa was dealt to Houston at the July 31 trade deadline. But despite taking over there, the infielder said he has never been explicitly told he’s the everyday shortstop.

“I’m just going to keep playing like I’m not going to be there,” he said last week. “I think I’ve been doing a good job so far. I’m not going to get complacent. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully I’ll stay there.”

With Correa out of the equation and other first-round shortstop selections like Kaelen Culpepper and Marek Houston still a ways from debuting, Lee has a chance to settle in at the position for the first time at the major league level.

Lee has played both second base and third base since arriving in the majors, with a bit of shortstop mixed in when Correa was either injured or had a day off. But now he has the chance to establish himself there.

“We’ve talked about guys taking this period of time as a really great opportunity. We say it over and over again,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “But I think you can see it in Brooks’ demeanor. Whether it be in his work pregame, whether he’s in the clubhouse or whether it’s during the game, that I think he’s more relaxed right now.  He’s not trying to simply go out there and just impress. He’s just trying to worry about playing the game the right way, making all the plays.”

Lee said last week that he thinks he has “been playing as good of shortstop,” as he ever has, and he seems to have developed a good, early chemistry with second baseman Luke Keaschall, who he said makes it easy on him.

“I think he wants to show what he can do as a major league shortstop, and he’s doing it,” Baldelli said. “You need innings and reps and a lot of balls to get hit your way to show a team what you’re capable of. I think he is enjoying being able to show us what he can do right now.”

Buxton hits 100

Byron Buxton has been one of the Twins’ most consistent bright spots this season, posting up nearly every day in center field as he puts up all-star numbers.

Wednesday, the Twins’ center fielder reached another personal milestone: Buxton played in his 100th game of the season, marking the first time he has done so in consecutive years and just the third time he has done it in his career.

With 29 games left to play after Wednesday, Buxton cannot eclipse his career high in games played (140), but he’s poised to breeze past the 102 games he played last season.

Buxton has missed time this season after colliding with Correa in May, leaving both concussed. He also missed a couple of weeks with ribcage inflammation but has otherwise been relatively healthy.

Briefly

The Twins will have Thursday off before returning to Target Field to host the San Diego Padres. It will mark the first time former Twin Luis Arraez has returned since the Twins traded him to Miami for starting pitcher Pablo López in 2023. …  The Twins optioned Pierson Ohl to make room on the active roster for Simeon Woods Richardson, who started Wednesday’s game. … Erasmo Ramírez, who was designated for assignment over the weekend, has accepted his assignment to Triple-A.

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Within seconds of a person opening fire into a Minneapolis church where children were gathered for Mass, teachers acted as heroes, Annunciation Catholic School’s principal said Wednesday.

“Children were ducked down,” said Matt DeBoer. “Adults were protecting children. Older children were protecting younger children. … It could have been significantly worse without their heroic action.”

Still, “we lost two angels today,” he said of two students, ages 8 and 10, who were killed.

The suspect wounded an additional 17 people before dying by suicide in the back of the church, said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.

The shooter was identified by O’Hara as Robin Westman, 23. The mother of a person of the same name and age as Westman previously worked at the site of the shootings, Church of the Annunciation. O’Hara said he could not confirm a relationship between the suspect and the church, “but that’s obviously something we’re looking very closely at.”

Robin Westman had a manifesto and had timed it to be released on YouTube. It “appeared to show (the suspect) at the scene and included some disturbing writings,” O’Hara said. With the assistance of the FBI, the content has since been taken down and “it now remains under active review by our investigators,” the police chief said.

O’Hara didn’t provide information about the manifesto and added: “I have no information to share on a motive,” he said.

FBI Director Kash Patel said on X (formerly Twitter) that the shooting is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics.

‘Deliberate act of violence’

Westman was outside the South Minneapolis church and shot through the windows, O’Hara said. The two children killed were sitting in the pews.

“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshiping,” O’Hara said. “The sheer cruelty and cowardice firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible.”

At Annunciation Catholic School, which resumed Monday after summer break, there was Mass to mark the first week of school. It was toward the beginning, so some children had already filed in and were seated, while others were coming in, O’Hara said. There were dozens of children present.

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Westman, armed with a rifle, shotgun and a pistol and outside the building, fired all three weapons toward children sitting in the pews about 8:30 a.m., O’Hara said. Westman had no prior criminal history and had recently lawfully purchased the weapons, according to the police chief.

Minneapolis police officers entered the church, attempted to provide first aid and rescued some of the children who were hiding throughout the building, according to O’Hara. First responders rushed victims to nearby hospitals.

The police chief said a wooden plank was placed to barricade some of the side doors, and that authorities found a smoke bomb but no explosives at the scene.

O’Hara said Wednesday afternoon that there was “no indication of other suspects directly involved in carrying out this attack.”

Law enforcement were carrying out search warrants at the church and three residences “nearby in the metro that are related to this shooter,” and additional firearms were being recovered from those locations as of Wednesday afternoon, O’Hara said.

Victims in critical condition

The 14 wounded juvenile victims are ages 6 to 15, and three adult victims are parishioners in their 80s who were attending the Mass. There is a range of injuries, but all the victims are expected to survive, O’Hara said.

Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis was caring for 10 victims as of 12:15 p.m. Wednesday. Six children and one adult were in critical condition, and another adult and two children were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to the hospital.

Children’s Minnesota said seven children ages 9 to 16 had been admitted to their hospital, and four patients had been released as of about 4:30 p.m.

Danielle Gunter, whose eighth-grade son was injured in the shooting, said their “hearts are shattered — not only for him, but for everyone who was harmed. We grieve and we pray: for the others who were shot, for their families, and for those who lost loved ones.”

She said in a statement that they “feel the pain, the anger, the confusion, and the searing reality that our lives will never be the same. Yet we still have our child. Unlike others, we are blessed to hold onto him. We will help him rebuild his life, his trust and his confidence.

“We don’t want others to ever feel the same. And we pray that everyone touched by this tragedy can find the strength to begin rebuilding, too.”

Gunter thanked first responders “who raced into danger for others, for us. … Our son shared with us that an MPD officer ‘really helped him.’ He said the officer rendered aid, hugged him, reassured him and prayed with him before getting into the ambulance.”

Weston Halsne, 10, told WCCO-TV that a friend saved him by laying on top of him. He said his friend was injured, and that’s he praying for him.

Fifth-grader Weston Halsne recounts taking cover behind a pew while a friend, who was injured, protected him with his body at Annunciation Church and School in Minneapolis after a mass shooting there Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025. Two children were killed and 17 people injured when a gunman opened fire through the windows of the church while students from the Catholic school were attending Mass. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“It was, like, shots fired and then we kind of like got under the pews,” he said. “They shot through the stained-glass windows, I think, and it was really scary.”

Dozens of officers responded to the scene and “many of them are deeply traumatized by what they saw, as are obviously all of the children, all of the staff members … everyone who was at Mass this morning,” O’Hara said.

‘Never again’

At Annunciation Catholic School, which serves preschoolers through eighth-graders, this school year’s theme is from the prophet Jeremiah chapter 29: “A future filled with hope.”

“There’s nothing about today that can fill us with hope,” Principal DeBoer said. “We as a community have a responsibility to make sure that no child, no parent, no teacher ever has to experience what we’ve experienced today. … Never again.”

At a Wednesday morning press conference near the church, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey urged people to move beyond “thoughts and prayers.”

“These kids were literally praying,” he said. “… They should be able to go to school or church in peace without the fear or risk of violence. … These are the sort of basic assurances that every family should have every step of the day, regardless of where they are in our country.”

Federal officials referred to Westman as transgender, and Frey decried hatred being directed at “our transgender community.”

Westman’s gender identity wasn’t clear. In 2020, a judge approved a petition, signed by Westman’s mother, asking for a name change from Robert to Robin, saying the petitioner “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”

Gov. Tim Walz ordered flags to fly at half mast at state buildings “immediately and continuing indefinitely” for the victims of the shootings.

“It’s my strongest desire that no state, no community, no school ever experiences a day like this,” he said.

President Donald Trump, with his leadership team of the attorney general and vice president, called Walz on Wednesday and offered “to provide the support to the folks here in Minnesota of what’s needed,” the governor said.

Pope Leo XIV sent a message to Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, via the Vatican’s secretary of state. It said the pope “sends his heartfelt condolences and the assurance of spiritual closeness to all those affected by this terrible tragedy,” Hebda read from the message.

Neighbors heard shots, saw crying children

People in the area heard gunshots ring out.

“It was by far the loudest, most horrific thing I’ve ever heard,” said Renee Landers, who lives close by. “I feel like it was just going forever.”

Neighbor Mark McLean said he saw “officers running from all directions.”

“In the worst possible way,” McLean said. He figured the shots were coming from Annunciation knowing that it was home to a church and school.

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Mason Carter, who works on masonry restoration, was working outside at a nearby home when he said he heard “three cadence outbursts of shots.” He saw a woman walking a baby down a street. “She kind of looked at me, I looked at her. I was like, ‘Get out of here.’ And we both just jetted.”

He later saw law enforcement walking a number of kids down the street. “I’m sure every student was crying,” he said.

Landers also saw children being led away. “Half of them were screaming and crying and saying, ‘I want my mom.’”

“I just can’t comprehend,” she said. “… And to see the parents coming here and and looking for their kids in just sheer terror.”

This report includes information from the Associated Press.

By MARK SCOLFORO

An Amish woman who told authorities she was testing her faith when she threw her 4-year-old son into an Ohio lake was charged Wednesday with two counts of aggravated murder in the boy’s death.

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Authorities said Ruth R. Miller, 40, of Millersburg, Ohio, told investigators she believed she was acting at the direction of God when she allegedly killed her son Vincen at Atwood Lake early Saturday.

The lead investigator with the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office, Capt. Adam Fisher, said Wednesday that Ruth Miller repeatedly said in interviews with police that she threw the boy off the dock and into the water to give him to God.

“It did not appear that the gravity of the situation had sunk in,” Fisher said.

The woman’s husband, Marcus J. Miller, 45, had apparently drowned while attempting to swim to an offshore sandbank hours earlier in another test of faith, Sheriff Orvis Campbell told reporters at a news conference Monday. Their other children, a 15-year-old girl and twin 18-year-old boys, were also directed to perform water-based trials of their belief but survived, Campbell said.

New Philadelphia Municipal Court online records indicate Ruth Miller was also charged with domestic violence and child endangerment regarding the older children. Authorities said Ruth Miller was receiving treatment at a secure mental health facility and had not been arrested by late Wednesday afternoon. A message seeking comment was left for her attorney, Scott Fromson.

Family members and the Millers’ church said in a statement that the deaths “do not reflect our teachings or beliefs but are instead a result of a mental illness. The ministry and extended family had been walking with them through their challenges, and they had also received professional help in the past.”

Campbell said Ruth Miller told investigators she believed she could walk on water but when she tried doing so off the end of the dock, she simply fell into the water.

“She and her husband went to this dock and they jumped in the water because God was speaking to them and telling them to do things, things to prove their worthiness to God,” Campbell said.

Marcus and Vincen Miller were apparently both dead when authorities were called Saturday morning for a report of a golf cart having gone into the lake. Campbell said Ruth Miller had driven it at a high speed into a stone wall on the lake shore with the three older children on board. The cart ended up fully submerged but visible, and her three children stood on it before getting out of the water.

People stand over the site where investigators say 40-year-old Ruth Miller of Millersburg, Ohio, drove a golf cart into Atwood Lake, Ohio Aug. 23, 2025, after she allegedly killed her 4-year-old son by throwing him into the lake. (Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Sheriff’s Office via AP)

When a rescuer tried to get Ruth Miller out of the water, she told them to “just pray for her,” Campbell said.

Park rangers heard “concerning type statements” from Ruth Miller, the sheriff said: “There was a pretty immediate statement made that she had given her son to the Lord.” Authorities soon realized her husband and 4-year-old son were missing.

“She began to express more that she had thrown the child in the water to give that child to God,” Campbell said. “But we didn’t know where in the water — it’s a big lake.” He said Ruth Miller was in mental crisis.

Searchers focused near the dock where authorities said the Millers had apparently tried to walk on water the night before. Around 6 p.m. Saturday, a diver found Vincen on the lake bed not far from the end of the dock. Early Sunday morning, divers found Marcus Miller’s body 53 yards (48 meters) from the dock.

The coroner said autopsies and an investigation will determine the manner of the two deaths.

The couple’s surviving children were “extremely confused” and upset, Campbell said. “Their mindset was that whatever their mother and father says is the way it is. They don’t question anything. So when they were told to jump in the lake, they jump in the lake,” he said.

Amish are part of a Christian movement professing non-violence although they have their cases of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Advocates for abuse victims among the Amish say that although church leaders have acknowledged the problem, they need to do more to respond to abuse as a crime to be reported to civil authorities, not just as a matter of church discipline.

The family lived in Holmes County, Ohio, which has a large Amish community. They had gone to Atwood Lake, about 82 miles south of Cleveland, in a recreational vehicle as a getaway, arriving Friday, Ruth Miller’s birthday.

Associated Press reporter Peter Smith reported from Pittsburgh. Scolforo reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.