Louisiana lawmakers have until Tuesday to approve a Congressional district map that creates a second majority-minority district as ordered by a federal judge.
Right now, a map with a second majority-Black district is working its way through the legislature. That map features a majority-Black district stretching from Baton Rouge to Shreveport.
A similar Louisiana congressional district map was rejected by a federal court nearly 30 years ago. University of Louisiana at Monroe political science professor Pearson Cross says lawmakers might have a hard time selling the map to the judge overseeing the lawsuit that resulted in this redistricting session.
"There's a good chance that this will be found to be a discriminatory plan," Cross said. "The slash district was clearly shot down before. It was felt that it was grouping voters by race rather than by other categories, and it was seen as unconstitutional."
A federal court rejected this slash district (in yellow) in 1996. The proposed reapportionment plan includes a district similar to this one.Public Domain/Data Source: UCLA
The sponsor of the redistricting bill currently on the table, Sen. Glen Womack (R-Harrisonburg) says voters aren't being grouped by race. He says his map was drawn to protect four Republican congressional incumbents. Cross says that reasoning could be acceptable to the Judge Shelley Dick, who will must give final approval to the map before it can take effect.
"They said you can do things for political reasons," Cross said. "What you can't do things for are very straightforward--racial reasons. Grouping citizens by race is unconstitutional. Grouping citizens by politics, that seems to be okay. If that's what the legislature is going to say is their main reason for doing this, it may fly. It may be workable."
Cross says the redistricting plan could survive further court challenges because of changes in the judiciary.
"The question becomes with the Voting Rights Act, Section V, having been pulled off and with a much more conservative Supreme Court, will a district like this that accomplishes a purpose like increasing majority-minority districts pass, or will they say, 'No. This is too much race conscious manipulation of voting districts'?" Cross said. "It's unclear."
Even if Sen. Womack's plan becomes law, Cross believes Louisiana legislators will have a difficulties selling it to the public, noting that the plan could potentially upset voters who are familiar with their current congressman.
"This is a map that is going to be very hard to explain to constituents who are rightly going to be saying, 'Why in the world am I in a new district, and what was wrong with the way it was before?'" Cross said.
