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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Federal judges toss out a Louisiana congressional map, bringing fresh | |
uncertainty to the future of a House seat | |
By Fredreka Schouten, CNN | |
Updated: | |
5:14 AM EDT, Wed May 1, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
A federal court on Tuesday a newly drawn congressional map that created | |
a second majority-Black district in Louisiana – in a potential blow | |
to Democrats seeking to seize control of the US House in November’s | |
elections. | |
The map, which slashed diagonally through the middle of the state to | |
create the new 6th Congressional District, amounts to an | |
unconstitutional racial gerrymander and cannot be used in any election, | |
US District Judges David Joseph and Robert Summerhays wrote in their | |
majority opinion. | |
The judges, both nominees of former President Donald Trump, were part | |
of a three-judge panel that presided over an April trial challenging | |
the map. The third judge, Carl Stewart of the 5th US Circuit Court of | |
Appeals and a nominee of former President Bill Clinton, dissented. | |
The judges set a May 6 hearing for all parties to discuss next steps. | |
An appeal to the US Supreme Court is likely – casting doubt over what | |
map will be used in this year’s elections. State officials have said | |
they need to know the contours of the district by May 15 to prepare for | |
fall elections. Officials with a Democratic redistricting group led by | |
former US Attorney General Eric Holder an application for an emergency | |
stay to be filed with the high court, urging the justices to keep the | |
map in place. | |
In a statement on social media, Louisiana’s Republican Attorney | |
General Liz Murrill said her team was still reviewing the ruling but | |
indicated the state would ask the high court to weigh in. | |
“I’ve said all along the Supreme Court needs to clear this up,” | |
she wrote. | |
Louisiana is among the states that saw protracted legal battles over | |
redistricting following the 2020 census. The creation of new districts | |
with sizable Black populations in Louisiana and in Alabama were cast as | |
significant wins for voting rights activists that also could shape the | |
balance of power in the House – where Republicans hold a threadbare | |
majority. | |
The intense legal skirmishes over redistricting have largely� | |
concluded, with observers on both sides of the aisle saying that� | |
control of the House could come down to just a handful of seats. | |
Earlier this year, Louisiana’s GOP-controlled Legislature – with | |
the support of newly elected Republican Gov. Jeff Landry – with the | |
new district to comply with a federal court order that found the state | |
likely in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act by diminishing the | |
voting power of Black Louisianians. Although Black residents make up | |
roughly a third of Louisiana’s population, the state has just one | |
Black lawmaker – who is also the lone Democrat – in its six-member | |
US House delegation. | |
The new district lines endangered the reelection chances for the | |
current 6th District officeholder, Republican Rep. Garret Graves, who | |
had backed a Landry rival in the 2023 race for governor. | |
Supporters of the Legislature’s map argued that political factors, | |
rather than race alone, had shaped its contours. | |
Graves had predicted the map would not stand. A dozen non-Black voters | |
filed a legal challenge to the district lines, arguing that it violated | |
the US Constitution’s equal protection clause. | |
The majority on the court agreed. | |
The evidence at trial, including demographic data, demonstrates that | |
“race was the predominate factor driving decisions made by the State | |
in drawing the contours of District 6,” Joseph and Summerhays wrote. | |
“This evidence shows that the unusual shape of the district reflects | |
an effort to incorporate as much of the dispersed Black population as | |
was necessary to create a majority-Black district.” | |
Holder, who chairs the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, | |
sharply criticized the ruling in a statement Tuesday night, saying it | |
“unnecessarily puts Louisianians’ right to vote in a very | |
precarious position.” | |
He argued the map approved by state lawmakers should remain in place | |
for the 2024 election. | |
This story has been updated with additional details. | |
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