Louisiana and the U.S. Department of Justice are fighting in court over a crucial challenge to the state’s legislative maps that could dramatically alter the makeup of state government.
The federal government intervened in the case earlier this month, providing a boost to Black voters and advocacy groups who sued top Louisiana Republicans in an effort to force the state to redraw its legislative maps.
If successful, the courts could require the state to draw as many as nine more majority-Black seats: six in the House and three in the Senate.
The case has not been as closely watched as a similar challenge to the state’s congressional maps, which may soon be resolved if the state Legislature complies with a court order next month to add a second majority-Black congressional seat.
But the legislative case has the potential to undo Republicans’ newfound supermajorities in both chambers, which would otherwise give Republicans unprecedented control of state government. Gov.-elect Jeff Landry and an all-Republican slate of statewide elected officials take office next month.
The case largely revolves around whether Republicans discriminated against Black voters in drawing the legislative maps, or whether the Legislature had party, not race, in mind when creating the maps. The DOJ’s ruling comes after a court in Missouri ruled that only the federal government can initiate challenges to maps under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
In a new brief filed by Ronald Gathe, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana, and Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ, the agency argues the state’s defense is no different from Alabama’s failed case in a landmark decision that upheld key parts of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial gerrymandering.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a surprise ruling, sided with Black voters challenging Alabama’s maps in that case.
That paved the way for the court decision by U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick of Louisiana’s Middle District, who ruled that Louisiana also must draw a new congressional map that creates a second majority-Black district. Dick is also overseeing the legislative map.
Attorneys for Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, Landry and other Republican officials argue the case is “overreach.” They say the state has more Black districts than ever, and that the voters and advocacy groups suing are trying to gain a disproportionate advantage. They also argue that redrawing the maps to add more Black districts would be unconstitutional.
“Even if plaintiffs’ estimates were reliable, they show there is political (not racial) polarization in Louisiana,” the attorneys wrote.
The DOJ rejected that argument, saying the state cannot escape the recent ruling in Alabama and that the maps do reflect racial gerrymandering.
