Judges Reject Map That Would Have Given Louisiana New Majority-Black House District

The decision is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court, leaving Louisiana in congressional district limbo for now.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A new congressional district map giving Louisiana a second majority-Black House district was rejected Tuesday by a panel of three federal judges, fueling new uncertainty about district boundaries as the state prepares for fall congressional elections.

The 2-1 ruling forbids the use of a map drawn up in January by the Legislature after a different federal judge blocked a map from 2022. The earlier map maintained a single Black-majority district and five mostly white districts, in a state with a population that is about one-third Black.

An appeal of Tuesday’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court is likely. Meanwhile, the ruling means continued uncertainty over what the November election map will look like. State election officials have said they need to know the district boundaries by May 15, and the sign-up period for the fall elections in Louisiana is in mid-July.

The new map was challenged by 12 self-described non-African American voters, whose lawsuit said the districts amounted to unconstitutional racial gerrymandering that discriminated against white voters while pulling together disparate areas of the state into one district.

Supporters of the new map said political considerations, not race, played a major role in the development of the new map, which slashes diagonally across the state, linking Black populations in the northwest, central and southeast regions. And they said it ensures the state’s compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act.