US Speaker Mike Johnson
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson believes Louisiana’s current Congressional map is constitutional and the state legislature should not approve a new map with two Black majority districts. But Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill says the state has exhausted all of its legal avenues.
“We’ve made multiple runs up through the courts of appeal, all the way to the United States Supreme Court and the message that we have uniformly received is to go back into session and draw a map,” said Murrill.
U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick ruled the map the Louisiana Legislature approved in 2022 violates the Voting Rights Act because only one of the six districts provides an avenue for a Black candidate to get elected.
Speaker Johnson says there should be a full-blown trial on Louisiana’s current map, but Murrill says they have to follow Judge Dick’s order to draw a new map by January 30th.
“I’ve been and down the courts of appeal and they told us to draw a map and then we can have a trial on the merits, which I think is upside down but at the end of the day I’ve exhausted all of my remedies,” said Murrill.
Governor Jeff Landry is backing a map that makes Republican Garret Graves’ sixth district the second Black voting district. Louisiana’s lone Black Congressman Troy Carter says the governor and the legislature are doing the right thing.
“The right thing to do is honor the courts requirement and draw two African American districts,” said Carter.
The map Landry supports is up for a vote in the Senate today. Graves calls it a crazy proposal because it runs from Baton Rouge to Shreveport.
Johnson leads a chamber with a slim Republican majority and a new map with two majority minority districts would likely give Democrats another seat in the House.
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