LAFAYETTE – The Vermilion Parish NAACP has sued the City of Abbeville for violating the Fourteenth Amendment's "One-Person, One-Vote" requirement by reusing 2010 electoral districts despite a 19% population deviation.
The lawsuit seeks to declare the Enacted Map unconstitutional and to establish a new district plan for the Abbeville City Council.
The Vermilion Parish Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed a lawsuit in federal court against the City of Abbeville, citing violations of the Fourteenth Amendment.
According to court documents, the plaintiff alleges that the City of Abbeville, a city with an approximate population of 11,186, violated the Fourteenth Amendment's One-Person, One-Vote (OPOV) requirement by passing Ordinance 22-12, which declares that the 2020 Census results did not substantially vary the population of Abbeville, and thus, the city would reuse its 2010 electoral districts.
However, the Enacted Map's population deviation is 19%, which is a violation of the OPOV requirement as established in legal precedents. The lawsuit states that the requirement limits deviations to no more than 10%.The plaintiff claims that the Council disregarded several compliant maps presented by the NAACP, which had deviations of less than 6%. Despite repeated requests, the Council refused to pass a compliant map.
The plaintiff requests that the court issue a judgment declaring that the Enacted Map violates the Fourteenth Amendment's OPOV requirement, to prohibit the defendant from implementing any election under the Enacted Map, and to establish a schedule for adopting and implementing a new plan for the Abbeville City Council districts. In addition, the plaintiff seeks reimbursement for court costs, legal expenses, attorney fees and any other relief the court deems proper.
The plaintiff is baeing represented by Ahmed Soussi, Bradley E. Heard, Sabrina Khan and Jess Unger of the Southern Poverty Law Center in New Orleans.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, Lafayette Division, case number 6:23-cv-01463