The outlines of Louisiana’s congressional redistricting map remained in flux Wednesday as the state Legislature opened a special session to reconsider district boundaries after a federal appeals court affirmed a judge’s order to redraw the map.
Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a proclamation last week calling on the Legislature to go into special session on June 15 and remain in session over a six-day period through Monday. Edwards called on lawmakers to reconsider the current map and to draw up a map that provides a second majority-Black congressional district to reflect demographic trends in the state.
The special session comes in the wake of the Fifth District lifting an administrative stay that had blocked federal district Judge Shelly Dick’s June 6 decision ordering state lawmakers to redraw the map because it didn’t provide for a second majority-Black district.
“This has always been a straightforward case of simple math, simple fairness and the rule of law,” Edwards said in a prepared statement. “According to the U.S. Census, African-Americans make up nearly one-third of the voting population in Louisiana, and therefore, we should have a second majority-minority congressional district.”
Even if state lawmakers provided a second Black-majority district, however, the ultimate boundaries of the map remain uncertain. That’s because the Fifth District has scheduled a hearing during the week of July 4 to examine the merits of the redistricting litigation
“We conclude that, though the plaintiffs’ arguments and the district court’s analysis are not without weaknesses, the defendants have not met their burden of making a ‘strong showing’ of likely success on the merits,” a three-judge panel for the Fifth Circuit said in a June 12 order.
Professor Dane Ciolino of the Loyola University College of Law said the Legislature has no choice but to redraw the districts, given the Fifth District’s actions.
“Whether the Legislature redraws the maps by the June 20 deadline or a few days later if the judge extends the deadline, they will be redrawn,” Ciolino said in an email to the Louisiana Record. “However, the Fifth Circuit has docketed the case for an expedited merits appeal and argument in early July. So, any new maps drawn in June could be thrown out in July.”
The state has six congressional districts but just one majority-Black district. Civil rights groups initiated federal litigation aimed at securing a second majority-minority district.