After a federal judge has blocked on Monday the use of Louisiana maps that have only one majority-Black district, Louisiana’s Democratic governor said he will call the Republican-dominated Legislature into a special session soon to draw up new congressional district boundaries.
A few hours after US District Judge Shelly Dick blocked the use of the new maps, imposing at the same time an order that the Legislature draw up a remedial plan by June 20, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced his plan at the Capitol in Baton Rouge after the 2022 regular legislative session ended.
Judge Dick wrote that the Court would issue additional orders to enact a remedial plan compliant with the laws and US Constitution if the Legislature is unable to pass a remedial plan by June 20 deadline, which is one month before the signup period for the Nov. 8 congressional election.
Pointing out that Louisiana’s population is almost one-third Black, Edwards noted that there should have been a second majority-Black district among the approved six districts.
To account for population shifts shown in the 2020 census, a legislative special session was called earlier this year to redraw government district lines and draw the new district map.
Edwards, whose veto of the maps was overridden by lawmakers earlier this year – which led to a lawsuit by voting rights advocates- said that redrawing the district lines is required not only by the court order but also by the Voting Rights Act and by basic fairness and basic math.
However, the lawyers for the state’s top elected official, the GOP Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, swiftly filed a notice of appeal of Dick’s order with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
In blocking Ardoin, whose office declined comment on the litigation, to use the new map pending further elections, Dick said the argument that the new districts violate the federal Voting Rights Act was likely to prevail.
The case could ultimately wind up before the Supreme Court
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