Louisiana Redistricting Following Supreme Court Ruling

Last month, a Supreme Court decision declared Louisiana’s previous congressional map as an illegal racial gerrymander. This has initiated a redistricting race across Southern states.

State Representative Edmond Jordan engaged in discussions with fellow legislators before a crucial vote on a new redistricting plan to eliminate a majority-Black congressional district in response to the ruling. This took place on Thursday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

On Friday, Louisiana lawmakers approved a new congressional map. The map removes one of the state’s two majority-Black districts, aligning with a similar move by another Southern state. This change follows the Supreme Court’s recent decision to weaken the Voting Rights Act.

The decision to redraw the map comes after delaying the state’s U.S. House primaries. The Republican-led Legislature spent weeks negotiating before agreeing to redraw the map. The new design diminishes the number of Black voters in the affected district, providing a structural advantage to Republicans for the upcoming November midterms.

The Louisiana State Senate gave the map a 28 to 10 approval on Friday afternoon. This followed a predominantly party-line vote in the House. Republican Governor Jeff Landry is anticipated to sign the map into law. The primaries for the six U.S. House seats have been rescheduled to November 3, about six months later than the other primary elections in Louisiana.

Representative Cleo Fields, a Black Democrat, lost his district under the new map. While he has not confirmed if he will run in the new Republic-favored district, the Supreme Court’s intervention in Louisiana’s map has elevated the threshold for discrimination claims under the Voting Rights Act. This Act, established in 1965, was designed to protect minority voters.

The ruling has spurred Republican legislatures across the Southern U.S. to debate the possibility of altering majority-Black districts historically defended by the Act.