Louisiana’s congressional map blocked, again

MONROE, La. (CN) — Three federal court judges ruled that Louisiana cannot use its new congressional map for 2024 elections, following a three-day trial earlier this month in a redistricting battle that’s taken many turns and revolves around Black voters and their rights.

In a 2-1 decision issued in the Western District of Louisiana Tuesday, the judges found for a group of self-described “non-African American” voters who said the state violated the Constitution with racial gerrymandering when the current voting map was created in a January special session and when, to comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the map creators drew up a second majority-Black district known as Section 6.

Intervenors from another voting rights case, as well as state officials, argued during trial earlier this month that District 6 was created with the primary intention of protecting Louisiana Republican lawmakers, for instance U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

“It is clear from the record and undisputed that political considerations — the protection of incumbents — played a role in how Section 6 was drawn,” the majority said in their opinion. But the judges concluded that racial gerrymandering had a greater influence with regard to drawing district lines than politically motivated gerrymandering.

“The predominate role of race in the State’s decisions is reflected in the statements of legislative decision-makers, the division of cities and parishes along racial lines, and the unusual shape of the district, and the evidence that the contours of the district were drawn to absorb sufficient numbers of Black-majority neighborhoods to achieve the goal of a functioning majority-Black district,” U.S. District Court Judges David Joseph and Robert Summerhays, both Donald Trump appointees, wrote in the majority opinion.

U.S. Circuit Judge Carl Stewart, a Bill Clinton appointee, wrote in a dissenting opinion that the "totality of the record demonstrates that the Louisiana Legislature weighed various political concerns—including protecting of particular incumbents—alongside race, with no factor predominating over the other.”

The majority's Tuesday opinion opened with an acknowledgment that the issue “reflects the tension between Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause” and explained that the Voting Rights Act protects minority voters against dilution while the Equal Protection Clause “applies strict scrutiny to redistricting that is grounded predominately on race.”

The map was put forth in January during a special session by the state’s Republican-led lawmakers and included two majority-Black voting districts. During the session, the then-newly elected state Governor Jeff Landry said he wanted to settle the voting map issues facing the state for once and for all. Landry’s comments came in response to a federal judge who found that the previous map the state used likely diluted the Black vote.

Republican Secretary of State Nancy Landry previously gave state lawmakers until May 15 to finalize the congressional map in order to use it for this year’s elections.

A status conference on the issue is scheduled for May 6.

Follow @SabrinaCanfiel2

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit