A panel of judges on the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Louisiana’s legislative district map violates the federal Voting Rights Act. Political analyst Scott Hughes says the panel and a state judge in Baton Rouge both agree that the map approved in 2022 dilutes the Black vote.
“By putting them in districts where they wouldn’t get representation. And then where they had to have some black voting districts, they packed them instead of making them reasonable, they overpacked them in black districts, thus creating fewer black districts,” Hughes explained.
The ruling from the federal appeals court does not mean that Louisiana lawmakers have to redraw the House and Senate district maps right away. A federal appeals judge not involved in Thursday’s ruling put a pause on the case. But Hughes says the legislative map issue was not going to be resolved, until there was a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the state’s contested Congressional map.
“The ruling was already going to be paused, because it ties to the exact same argument of the Cleo fields congressional seat.
And that argument is already at the U.S. Supreme Court,” Hughes said.
The plaintiffs in the state legislative map case are arguing Blacks and Democrats are not fairly represented in the Louisiana Legislature. Hughes says one-third of the state’s voting population is black, but Republicans have a super majority control in the House and Senate.
“So you look at the 105 house seats, you look at the 39 Senate seats, and the argument goes a third of those roughly should be winnable by African American/Democrat. And they’re really not,” Hughes said.
