2022 national redistricting is complete... almost. Louisiana's partisan Republican gerrymander was challenged in court for being too racist. Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards vetoed the racist proposal and the racists in the legislature promptly overrode the veto on March 30, one Democrat and 3 independents joining the GOP. A third of the state's population is Black, but just one of the 6 congressional districts is drawn with the reasonable expectation that a Black candidate could be elected. After the veto was override, Edwards said "I’m obviously disappointed. I’m certainly not surprised... When the population of our state is one-third African American, then simple math and simple fairness means two of those districts need to be minority districts. That’s easy to understand. What’s not easy to understand is why the House and the Senate refused to do that multiple times."
Edwards wasn't the only one who found that "not easy to understand." Late yesterday federal Judge Shelly Dick as much as said she will draw a new Louisiana congressional map with a second Black district after the legislature failed to draw new boundaries of its own in a special session that ended yesterday with no progress. It wouldn't be difficult to do. The northern and central eastern part of the state bordering on Mississippi is the natural place for a second Black district without any contortions at all.
This is somewhat similar to what happened in New York, where the Democratic-controlled legislature drew an obviously overly partisan map and a judge redrew it, punishing the Democrats very harshly for their bullshit. The Louisiana situation will be much easier to do-- except for one thing... the state legislature is already trying to get the racist and overly partisan U.S. Supreme Court ro come to the rescue of Jim Crow.
Dick, who ruled June 6 that the congressional map passed by lawmakers in February violated the Voting Rights Act because it kept just one majority Black district, had given the Legislature a deadline of June 20 to pass new boundaries or she would take over.
Republican House Speaker Clay Schexnayder of Gonzales and Republican Senate President Page Cortez had unsuccessfully argued the Legislature needed more time to create a new map, a motion Dick denied in court Thursday.
...That sets the stage for Dick's June 29 hearing in which she could enact her own map, which she promised to do if the Legislature didn't pass new boundaries.
Meanwhile, the state on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in to preserve the existing map passed by lawmakers in a February Special Session.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has set a July 8 hearing to review Dick's order that threw out the map.
But Dick's order stands unless or until another court takes action.
The map up top splits Louisiana up into the requisite 6 districts, Letlow, a freshman, the biggest loser:
LA-01-- R+25 (Steve Saclise) was R+41
LA-02-- D+45 Troy Carter) was D+51
LA-03-- R+52 (Clay Higgins) was R+39
LA-04-- R+37 (Mike Johnson) was R+25
LA-05-- D+19 (Julia Letlow) was R+31
LA-06-- R+48 (Garrett Graves) was R+32
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