NEW ORLEANS — Voting rights advocates said Wednesday they will go to the Supreme Court in hopes of preserving a new majority-black voting district in Louisiana for the fall elections, the latest step in a complicated legal fight that could determine the fate of their careers. policies and the balance of power. in the next Congress.
A divided panel of federal judges on Tuesday rejected a map approved in January by an unusual alliance of Republicans, who dominate the Legislature, and Democrats who want a majority-black — and majority-Democratic — second congressional district.
The state’s Republican Attorney General, Liz Murrill, said she would appeal Tuesday’s ruling. And a coalition of individuals and civil rights groups filed a formal notice Wednesday saying they would go to the Supreme Court.
Jared Evans, an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, said that by the end of the week advocates will ask the Supreme Court to keep the new maps in place for 2024, pending further legal action. He cited the need to have district maps soon. State election officials said they need to know which maps to use by May 15 for the fall elections.
The same judicial panel that rejected the new map — often referred to by its legislative bill number, SB8 — has scheduled a status conference on Monday to discuss what the state should do next. Evans said there are numerous options, including appointing a special master to draw a map or giving the Legislature another chance. But Evans said time is running out.
“Right now, with six months until the election, the Supreme Court is going to have to step in and say SB8 can move forward or not,” Evans said.
Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry expressed frustration with the process.
“The continued inconsistency of the federal courts is remarkable and disappointing,” Landry said Wednesday in Baton Rouge. “The people of Louisiana deserve better from our Federal Courts. Either the Legislature is in control of drawing a map or the Federal Courts are, but both cannot!”
Landry, a former attorney general, has advocated for a 2022 map with just one majority-Black district among six. But ruling in a lawsuit filed in Baton Rouge, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick blocked use of the 2022 map. She said it likely violated the Federal Voting Rights Act, with boundaries that divided Black voters among five majority white districts. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later gave lawmakers a deadline to draft a new map.
Landry, who became governor in January, urged the Legislature to draw up a new map rather than leaving it in the federal courts. With Landry’s support, SB8 passed.
But a group of 12 self-described non-African-American voters filed a lawsuit in western Louisiana against the new district, which cuts across the state to link black populations in four distinct metropolitan areas, running from the northwest to the southeast. They said it was designed with race as the predominant motivation.
Two members of a three-judge panel appointed to hear this constitutional challenge sided with the plaintiffs, settling the challenge pending before the Supreme Court. A third judge disagreed, saying the evidence showed that political considerations — including protecting the districts of House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republican Leader Steve Scalise — had been a major motivation.
The new map sacrificed the district of incumbent Republican Garret Graves, who supported a Republican opponent of Landry in last year’s gubernatorial race. State Sen. Cleo Fields, a former black and Democratic congressman, said she will run for the seat.
___
Associated Press reporter Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed to this story.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
