A federal judge ruled Monday that the new Louisiana congressional map is a racial herrimander and must be redrawn to include a second constituency that allows black voters to choose a candidate of their choice.
Judge Shelley D. Dick of the United States District Court for the Louisiana Central District ordered the state legislature to prepare a revised map of the state’s six congressional districts by June 20. She also ordered the state to extend the deadline for nominees for the Chamber, which is now set for June 22nd to July 8th.
Its 150-page ruling says the House of Representatives map, introduced by the Republican-controlled legislature, illegally packed black voters in the Second Congressional District and then divided the remaining black voters among the other five districts.
Civil rights groups say the legislature could easily create a second majority district in the Congress of Blacks, but instead chose to effectively duplicate the only predominantly black district on the House’s previous map.
This neighborhood, which is approximately 70 percent black, winds along the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. Much of it is surrounded by the Sixth District, which is one-third Black.
Approximately one-third of the state’s population is African American – one of the largest shares in any state – while 57 percent of the state’s population is white. The 2020 census showed that the state’s black population grew by 3.8 percent in the previous decade, while the white population fell by 6.3 percent.
Judge Dick’s opinion sought to argue that her order had given the state more than enough time to draw a new map and still hold primary elections on November 8. The general election is in December.
The Supreme Court has overturned a number of court rulings on election changes over the past two years, citing a legal doctrine called Purcell’s principle that courts should not make changes to laws or rules too close to elections to avoid confusing voters.
Most notably in February, a court reinstated a map of the Alabama Congress, which a lower court dismissed as a blurring of black voices, saying it would consider appealing the decision after the November election.
Courts have not yet said how soon before election day it is too early to cancel voting procedures, but Judge Dick, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, has argued that the principle does not apply in the Louisiana case.
The state’s attorney general said the redrawing order would “act like a hurricane” in the state election schedule, but the judge said government officials themselves testified that mechanisms such as reprinting ballots and telling voters where they live. though inconvenient, they were far from impossible to perform.
“Putting bureaucratic pressure on a government agency to correct a violation of federal law is not analogous to a natural disaster,” she wrote. “The protection of the right to vote is clearly in the public interest, while allowing elections to continue on a card that violates federal law is certainly not the case.
Black U.S. lawmakers called for a second constituency in the district redirection hearing last fall, with Ted James, then a U.S. lawmaker who led the Legislative Black Group, emphatically saying “one-third of six is two.”
Louisiana Gov. John Bell Edwards, a Democrat, vetoed Parliament’s map in March, saying it was “simply unfair to the people of Louisiana and does not meet the standards set out in the Federal Voting Rights Act.”
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