NEW ORLEANS — Voting rights advocates filed an emergency motion Wednesday asking the Supreme Court to uphold a new Louisiana congressional map for this year’s elections that gives the state a second majority-black district.
A divided panel of federal judges in western Louisiana ruled on April 30 that the new map, approved by lawmakers in January, was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Wednesday’s request to the Supreme Court seeks to block that decision, keeping the new districts in place while appeals continue. The high court called for responses to the appeal by Monday morning — two days before state election officials said they needed a map to prepare for fall elections.
Gov. Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill, both Republicans, support the new map. Murrill said she also planned to ask the high court to keep it in place.
Voting patterns show that a new majority-black district would give Democrats a chance to win another House seat. The new map converted District 6, represented by Republican Representative Garret Graves. Democratic state Sen. Cleo Fields, a black former congressman, said he would run for the seat.
Supporters of the new district, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, say the lower court’s ruling effectively means Louisiana does not have a congressional map for the fall elections and no realistic chance for the Legislature to adopt one in time.
Wednesday’s order is the latest development in a seesaw that spans two federal district courts and an appeals court.
The state has five white Republican members of the U.S. House and one black member who is a Democrat. All were elected most recently according to a map that the Legislature created in 2022.
US. District Judge Shelly Dick of Baton Rouge blocked further use of the 2022 map, saying it likely violated the federal Voting Rights Act by dividing many of the state’s Black residents — about a third of the population — among five districts. A federal appeals court gave lawmakers a deadline earlier this year to act.
The Legislature responded with the latest map by creating a new district crossing the state diagonally and linking the black populations of Shreveport in the northwest, Alexandria in the center, and Lafayette and Baton Rouge in the south.
A group of self-described non-African-American voters filed a lawsuit against that map, saying it was unconstitutionally drawn with race as the primary factor.
Supporters of the map said political considerations — including keeping the districts of House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise — were the main drivers of the map in the Republican-dominated Legislature. But the judges voted 2-1 to side with the opponents of the new map.
The panel said Tuesday it would impose its own plan, but also said the Legislature should try to come up with it by June 3. Wednesday’s document argues that there is no legal or logistical way for the Legislature to get a new map approved in time, noting that state election officials have said they need a map ready by May 15.
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Associated Press reporter Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.
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