Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.
Senate Governmental Affairs will meet at nine Thursday morning to discuss two potential congressional district maps while the senate president and house speaker will be in court asking for more time. One map submitted by Baton Rouge Senator and Democrat Cleo Fields contains two majority-Black districts which would meet the stipulations handed down by a federal judge.
“My president and the speaker of the house have to go to a court and say why they need more time when they sent a bill back to the calendar that complied with the court order, but we need more time. It’s time for us to do the right thing,” said Fields.
Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards says he fully supports a congressional map that has two majority-Black districts.
“Currently we have one African American majority district, I believe there should be two if they can be drawn in a way that is consistent with and satisfies the redistricting principles,” said Edwards.
GOP House Speaker Clay Schexnayder and Senate President Page Cortez will appear before Judge Shelly Dick Thursday morning to make their argument that the June 20th deadline should be extended.
Loyola University law professor Dane Ciolino said with or without the requested extension, lawmakers are still under orders to draw a new map. He said only a reversal – on the merits of the case – by the federal appeals court will change that.
“It’s certainly possible and if a 5th Circuit were to do that in early July then the on-again, off-again process of redrawing and implementing new districts would be off again,” said Ciolino.
The other map to be considered is by Slidell Republican Sharon Hewitt. It’s the map that passed in the redistricting session that a federal court has rejected because it only has one majority Black district. Hewitt who also chairs the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee said the June 20th court-imposed deadline is not realistic.
“Maybe there have been bills or maps that have been passed before my time, in six days. I think it is extremely difficult to do that without sacrificing transparency and the opportunity for public input,” said Hewitt.
Many House and Senate Republicans feel there’s insufficient time with the six days allotted to get a map passed in both chambers. Ciolino feels, in the bigger scheme of things, Thursday’s court appearance by legislative leaders is not particularly important.
“The legislature now has to redraw these districts. The only thing that will stop that would be a reversal on the merits by the 5th Circuit in mid-July,” said Ciolino.
And while the Republican majority and its leadership have said the six-day window to redraw the map is insufficient, Edwards said major legislation has been passed in similar time frames.
“That is a short period of time, but I can tell you redistricting sessions have been successful with six legislative days in the past. We’ve had a six-day session in the past where an entire appropriations bill was passed,” said Edwards.
Fields called out Hewitt who believes the map with only one majority-Black district that passed in the majority Republican legislature in February is legal. Fields said Hewitt, who attended town hall meetings heard from voters across the state.
“From Shreveport to New Orleans, you heard them, they said we want a second minority district. You heard them, every town hall meeting you held people said they wanted a second Black district,” said Fields.
Hewitt however feels the congressional map that lawmakers gave final passage to during the redistricting session is lawful.
“The 14th Amendment says you cannot use race as the predominant reason for drawing a map, yet we’re being directed by the court to use race as the reason to draw a second district. Yet here we are,” said Hewitt.
Senate President Page Cortez and House Speaker Clay Schexnayder are scheduled to appear in court today to request a deadline extension to at least June 30th.
House Governmental Affairs is scheduled to meet Friday morning and the full House will convene that afternoon.
Kevin Gallagher and David Grubb also contributed to this story.
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