LOUISIANA, USA — The U.S. 5th District Court of Appeal agreed on Thursday to cancel a hearing that had been set for Tuesday that would have carved out a second majority-Black district in Louisiana ahead of the 2024 elections.
According to NOLA.com, this was an unusual move by the court that could lead to the state holding elections with its current maps during next year's congressional elections.
State Republican leaders had been pushing for this outcome, with Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin and Republican legislative leaders pushing for the court to overturn the ruling.
This came after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that found the state of Alabama in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. Afterward, eyes turned to Louisiana, which like Alabama has a Black population who have not been represented proportional to their population.
Right now, only 1/6 of Louisiana congressional districts are majority-Black, despite the state's 33% Black population, according to the 2020 U.S. Census whose estimates are used to determine the amount of districts in a given state.
The U.S. Supreme Court had rejected a request by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry in June to hear the Louisiana case, instead sending it back down to the 5th District Court.
