Governor Jeff Landry has signed an executive order suspending Louisiana’s U.S House of Representatives races, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the current Congressional map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Shreveport Senator Alan Seabaugh agrees with this decision since the Supreme Court is the final word, a new map must be approved before the U.S. House elections can take place…
“This is a final ruling. It’s unappealable. You can’t appeal, there’s nowhere else to appeal to. This is a final ruling, these districts are unconstitutional; therefore, they don’t exist anymore,” Seabaugh explained.
Early voting for the federal elections, including the six U.S. House party primaries, was set to begin on Saturday. Seabaugh says postponing the Congressional elections is the right thing to do so that a legal Congressional map can approved by the state legislature,
“And I think we have time. Election Day is not until November 3rd. There’s plenty of time between now and then,” Seabaugh noted.
The Republican and Democratic U.S. Senate primaries will go on as scheduled as well as the other races for BESE, PSC and the Supreme Court. There is a little more than a month left in the regular session to approve a new Congressional map. Seabaugh says bills were filed weeks ago in case the nation’s highest court ruled that the current map is unconstitutional.
“We’ve got maps that were filed. We’ve got other bills that we’ve identified that are germane to every fix that we need,” Seabaugh said.
Governor Landry issued the following statement:
“The best way to end race-based discrimination is to stop making decisions based on race. Here in Louisiana, we’re proud to lead the nation on this charge. Allowing elections to proceed under an unconstitutional map would undermine the integrity of our system and violate the rights of our voters. This executive order ensures we uphold the rule of law while giving the Legislature the time it needs to pass a fair and lawful congressional map. I would like to thank Attorney General Liz Murrill for her hard work throughout this process.”
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