Governor Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill say Louisiana will suspend the congressional primaries, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Congressional map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Shreveport Senator Alan Seabaugh agrees with this decision since the Supreme Court is the final word, a new map must be approved before the U.S. House elections can take place.
“This is a final ruling. It’s unappealable. You can’t appeal, there’s nowhere else to appeal to. This is a final ruling, these districts are unconstitutional; therefore, they don’t exist anymore,” Seabaugh explained.
Early voting for the federal elections, including the six U.S. House party primaries, was set to begin on Saturday. Seabaugh says postponing the Congressional elections is the right thing to do so that a legal Congressional map can approved by the state legislature.
“And I think we have time. Election Day is not until November 3rd. There’s plenty of time between now and then,” Seabaugh noted.
U.S. Senate primaries can go on as scheduled as well as the other races for BESE, PSC and the Supreme Court. There is a little more than a month left in the regular session to approve a new Congressional map. Seabaugh says bills were filed before Wednesday’s historic ruling by the Supreme Court, in case the nation’s highest court ruled that the current map is unconstitutional.
“We’ve got maps that were filed. We’ve got other bills that we’ve identified that are germane to every fix that we need,” Seabaugh said.