NEW ORLEANS — Federal judges at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans spent the morning questioning attorneys for voting rights advocates and Louisiana republican officials.
At issue, whether the court should uphold a lower court ruling blocking Louisiana from using the state’s current congressional map in the next election.
NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorney Stuart Naifeh argued in favor of the injunction.
“We believe that the evidence is clear that the redistricting plan for the districts in Louisiana dilutes the votes of black voters in Louisiana and that needs to be remedied,” Naifeh said.
Louisiana is about one-third African American but only one of the six congressional districts in the state has a majority black population.
State Rep. Kyle Green from Marrero sat in on the hearing.
He says the federal Voting Rights Act ensures adequate representation based on race.
“At the end of the day, we’re going to see a map in place that has two majority black districts where African Americans have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice to Congress,” Green said.
Proposed maps show the new majority minority district extending from Baton Rouge through the delta parishes near Monroe.
An attorney for Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin declined to talk about the case after the hearing.
But in court, Phillip Strach argued that race cannot be used to “stitch together” distant areas into a single district.
Voting rights advocates argue the new district joins communities of similar social and economic interests.
“Quite frankly, it’s Louisiana we are gumbo,” New Orleans attorney Tracie Washington said. “Quite frankly, you’re going to find communities of interest in Baton Rouge, in the Delta, in New Orleans.”
State attorneys asked the judges to send the case back to the district court in Baton Rouge for a full trial on the merits of the voting rights lawsuit.
Lawsuit supporters argued they don’t want to be “timed out” from using new Congressional maps during the 2024 election.
The three-judge panel took the arguments under advisement and are now expected to hand down a decision at a later date.
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