A special session called by the governor to redraw a Congressional map with two Black-majority districts gets underway today. A federal judge has given the Legislature a June 20th deadline to approve a new map, but a hearing will be held tomorrow to hear arguments from House Speaker Clay Schexnayder and Senate President Page Cortez who want the deadline extended. Covington Republican Representative Mark Wright says it’s likely you won’t see much done today.
“It’s very possible we could gavel in and gavel out because the majority of the body doesn’t want to do those maps,” said Wright.
New Orleans Democrat Mandie Landry said because the matter is being bounced around in the courts, there’s a chance the legislature will pass a ‘just in case map.’
“But there’s a chance they won’t pass anything, because I’m not sure if many of my colleagues from across the aisle are going to even vote for a map that has two majority-minority districts in it,” said Landry.
A federal appeals court will hear arguments on July 8th on whether the map approved by lawmakers in February is legal. Wright says he would rather wait on a ruling from the 5th circuit court of appeals before they redraw a map.
“I think people would rather see it run its course through that so, I’m not expecting us to draw maps. We’ll see I’m just one of 105,” said Wright.
As of Wednesday morning, two maps have been filed by Democratic lawmakers to be considered for the special session. Landry said Democrats produced several maps in the original redistricting session that contained two majority Black districts out of the six Congressional districts.
“There are plenty of legal and viable options that have already been filed for new Congressional maps,” said Landry.
Both chambers are scheduled to convene today at noon.
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