Gov. and LLBC disappointed in court ruling

Published 4:34 pm Tuesday, June 28, 2022

By special.to

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana heard arguments Tuesday in an ongoing case pitting families of students of Fifth Ward Elementary school against St John the Baptist Parish School Board.
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

BATON ROUGE, La. – Gov. John Bel Edwards today issued a statement regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s stay of the Middle District Court’s ruling that Louisiana’s congressional maps must be redrawn to include a second African-American district.

Gov. Edwards said:

“Today’s ruling from the Supreme Court is more than a little disappointing. The District Court’s well-reasoned 157 page decision clearly demonstrated that the maps passed by the legislature do not comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Black Louisianans make up one third of our population, and one third of our districts should be majority Black when such a map can be drawn, and, as has been clearly demonstrated, that map is more compact, better adheres to the legal principles governing redistricting, and will perform.  As I have always maintained, it is about simple math, basic fairness, and the rule of law.”

The Louisiana Black Caucus said:

“On behalf of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus (LLBC), we are disheartened to see that the Supreme Court has put on hold the drawing of new Louisiana congressional districts before the 2022 elections. I am proud of the work that we in the LLBC have done along with our legal team, the NAACP, and Power Coalition to continue to fight to increase black voting power here in Louisiana, but our hopes for change in the short term have been dashed. We maintain that the current map is an obvious violation of Section 2 of the voting rights act, and with this decision we will be forced to continue forward into the next election with this map in place, having one minority district. It is our hope that the Court will come to rule in our favor to resolve the issue of underrepresentation for minorities in our state.”

You Might Like