Global Courant
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge’s plan to hold hearings next week to draw congressional boundaries that would give Louisiana a second majority-black district was blocked Thursday by a divided appeals court panel .
Supporters of creating a second such district had hoped a recent Supreme Court ruling would uphold a redrawn map Alabama would soon lead to similar results in Louisiana.
But in a 2-1 ruling, a panel of judges from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Baton Rouge-based U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick acted too quickly and should give the state more time to consider a new map.
Dick had issued an injunction last year to block a map drawn up by the Legislature, which he said violated the Voting Rights Act. But the map was used in the 2022 election after the Supreme Court stayed the Louisiana case pending the outcome of the Alabama case.
Writing for the majority in the appellate ruling, Judge Edith Jones said Dick had set an “impossibly short timeline” for lawmakers to draw new maps last year. Now, she said, “there is no order for a rushed court hearing in the first week of October 2023, months before the deadlines for district apportionment, candidate filings and all the details of the 2024 election.”
Judge James Ho, nominated by former President Donald Trump, agreed with Jones, a nominee of former President Ronald Reagan.
Judge Stephen Higginson, nominated by former President Barack Obama, disagreed, noting that the issues have been before the courts for more than a year.
Louisiana has six U.S. House districts. Five are currently represented by white Republicans and one by a black Democrat.
The Legislature met last year to adjust congressional district boundaries to account for population shifts reflected in the last census.
The maps adopted by the Republican-dominated body included only one predominately Black district and were adopted over the objection of Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who agreed with voting rights advocates who said a district with a second majority of black people is needed in a state where the population is about one-third black.
Another 5th Circuit panel will hear arguments next week on the order Dick issued last year that blocked use of the 2022 map.
