A panel of three judges on the conservative-dominated 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has given Louisiana's heavily Republican legislature until Jan. 15 to draw a new congressional map with a second district where Black voters could elect their preferred candidate, who would almost certainly be a Black Democrat.
The appellate judges agreed with a lower court that Republican mapmakers likely violated the Voting Rights Act when they enacted a congressional map after the 2020 census with just one majority-Black district instead of two. However, Republicans are unlikely to draw a compliant map, since they're claiming the relevant part of the VRA is unconstitutional in a separate lawsuit that is challenging their legislative maps.
Aware of this possibility, the 5th Circuit said that if lawmakers fail to act, the lower court should proceed with a trial in time to implement a new map ahead of the 2024 elections. Although it didn't set a firm timeline, the panel referenced the defense counsel's suggestion of a Feb. 15 start date for a trial and a May 30 deadline for a new map to be adopted to allow sufficient time before the July 19 candidate filing deadline.
Months before the 2022 elections, a federal district court had temporarily blocked the GOP's map, but the Supreme Court put that ruling on hold while Republicans appealed. However, in a landmark decision in June, the Supreme Court upheld a similar ruling requiring a second Black district in Alabama, where a lower court just implemented a new map for 2024. If the justices follow their own precedent as laid down in the Alabama case, Louisiana's map should ultimately face a similar fate.
However, a trial would give the Republicans more opportunities to delay since they could appeal any subsequent ruling. Further delays could provide a pretext for the Supreme Court's right-wing majority to once again say it's too close to the next election to adopt a new map, which would let Louisiana Republicans get away with an illegal gerrymander for a second of the decade's five elections.
