Louisiana to Appeal After Judge Blocks Congressional Map, Orders New Black District

A person walks past a sign during a runoff election for Louisiana governor at a polling station at Quitman High School in Quitman, La., on Nov. 16, 2019. Matt Sullivan/Getty Images

A federal court judge on Monday struck down Louisiana’s new six-district congressional map and ordered the state redraw it to add a second majority-black district by June 20.

Following the decision by U.S. Middle District Judge Shelly Dick, Louisiana’s attorney general, Jeff Landry, swiftly announced the state would file an appeal.

“We believe [Dick] erred in her decision and have filed a notice of appeal. We look forward to the Fifth Court halting the ruling!” Landry wrote on Twitter Monday night.

In her ruling, Dick said that if the legislature failed to redraw the boundaries, the court would draw its own map “compliant with the laws and Constitution of the United States,” Daily Advertiser reported.

Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards said Monday that he would call a special session of the legislature to redraw the districts.

He had previously said that lawmakers should have included a second district of mostly-black voters among the six districts they approved, given the state’s one-third black population, according to the Associated Press.

Dick’s decision comes after a lawsuit was filed in response to Louisiana’s GOP-led legislature overriding Edwards’ veto of its adopted district maps on March 30.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. took up the issue, with President and Director-Counsel Janai Nelson hailing the court’s ruling on Monday.

“Huge win for voting rights and fair maps out of Louisiana where we contested the Congressional redistricting process on behalf of Black voters as a violation of the Voting Rights Act. Supremely proud of our legal team,” Nelson wrote on Twitter.

“Louisiana’s voting-age population is nearly one-third Black but they comprise a majority in only one of the state’s six congressional districts,” she added.

Nelson said black voters “could easily comprise two majority districts” and claimed they were “unlawfully out-voted [and] underrepresented in Congress.”

The Republican chairs of both the House and Senate Governmental Affairs Committees have argued the map is legal and will prevail on appeal.

“I’m not terribly surprised by this court’s ruling because I think it was a friendly forum for the plaintiffs,” Crowley Rep. John Stefanski said in an interview with USA Today Network. “We have to just wait and see the appeals process through.”

Echoing similar sentiments, Slidell Sen. Sharon Hewitt said she is “still confident in the map as it was drawn and I’m looking forward to see how it plays out in court.”

Dick’s ruling means the current congressional map cannot be used in the upcoming 2022 midterm elections. The state has, for now, until July 20 to 22 to qualify for Louisiana’s Nov. 8 congressional election.