Will Louisiana Ever Get a Majority Black House 2nd District?

Black voters in Louisiana face re-vote for the majority-black 2nd District after a federal court ruled it unconstitutional.

Nearly two years after a judge found that the state’s congressional map limits Black voting rights in 2022, a latest ruling, issued on April 30 by two judges appointed by former President Donald Trump, once more leaves the state without a congressional map for just six months. presidential elections in 2024

The federal court that invalidated the most recent congressional map held a hearing on May 6 on next steps. Officials argue that the continuing legal battle over the map puts them in a difficult position between provisions of the Voting Rights Act that give power to minority voters and the Constitution’s limits on the federal government’s ability to step in so as to add race as a consideration.

In early 2024, a group of non-Black voters filed a lawsuit against the map, arguing that the brand new district divided key communities of interest and have become a “racial gerrymander.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill released a statement on X, formerly generally known as Twitter, saying the state must be allowed to implement a map adopted by the state Legislature allowing two majority-Black districts. If that does not occur, she says the following option must be to return to the 2022 map – with one district where nearly all of voters are Black.

Murrill says the following stop will likely be the Supreme Court. Given the way in which courts have downplayed redistricting plans that discriminate against voters of color, voters will likely be closely watching how the Supreme Court handles the growing dispute. Sen. Cleo Fields, who can be running for the brand new sixth Congressional District, says practices proceed to differ. “Right now, Louisiana doesn’t have a map,” Fields said.

“Courts cannot say, ‘Follow the law. You have the right to set boundaries,” but then say, “We don’t like the way you obeyed the law.”

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, the state’s only Black Democratic member of Congress, also criticized the ruling on social media, calling it “simply wrong.” MATHEMATICS is MATHEMATICS! The United States Supreme Court must correct this immediately,” he wrote on Twitter.

State officials have notified lawmakers that they’ve until May 15 to announce how they may shape their ruling to organize for the upcoming election. However, federal judges warned the state legislature that the brand new map should be passed by June 3 or the panel would create it on their behalf, Press Association. “To be clear, the fact that the Court is conducting a remedial phase in this case does not prevent the Louisiana Legislature from pursuing its ‘sovereign interest’ by drawing a map consistent with the law,” the justices wrote.