Judge blocks Louisiana Congress map with only one Black district

By Kevin McGill, AP News

“A stay increases the risk that Plaintiffs do not have an opportunity to vote under a nondilutive congressional map until 2024…,” U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick wrote.

Louisiana’s Democratic governor said Monday he will call the Republican-dominated Legislature into special session soon to draw up new congressional district boundaries, now that a federal judge has blocked use of maps that have only one majority-Black district.

Gov. John Bel Edwards announced his plan at a news conference at the Capitol in Baton Rouge. He spoke to reporters minutes after the 2022 regular legislative session ended, and a few hours after U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick, also in Baton Rouge, blocked the use of the new maps. Her ruling included an order that the Legislature draw up with a remedial plan by June 20.

Edwards, whose veto of the maps was overridden by lawmakers earlier this year, said there should have been a second majority-Black district among the six districts that were approved, noting that the state’s population is almost one-third Black.

Edwards said redrawing the district lines is required by the court order, the Voting Rights Act and by “basic fairness and basic math.”

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Learn about one man who fought for voting rights six decades ago. Unfortunately, the GOP has been trying to block black voters.

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