Posted on 03/24/2025 7:42:07 AM PDT by Racketeer
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - The Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case on Monday that challenges Louisiana’s congressional map after it was redrawn to include a new majority-black district.
The case began years ago, when Louisiana’s state legislature drew a congressional map following the 2020 census. It included one majority-Black district out of the state’s six. The map was challenged because roughly a third of the state’s population is Black.
“After years and years of litigation, the legislature was finally compelled to do the right thing and pass a map that provided black voters with a fair opportunity to participate, and specifically to elect their candidate of choice. Now, in two districts” said Victoria Wegner, an attorney with the Legal Defense Fund, which has been heavily involved in the Louisiana redistricting litigation.
After the creation of the new majority-black district, the state’s second black Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields (D-LA) was elected in November.
But even before that election happened, another lawsuit challenging the new map was filed by a group of non-black voters. They allege that the state engaged in illegal racial gerrymandering, violating the U.S. constitution.
“Basically the state predominantly, we would say solely used race to draw to force a second Black majority district. It imposed a two district quota on the state,” said Edward Greim, who is an attorney for the defendants in the case before the Supreme Court.
While the November elections were allowed to proceed with two majority-Black districts, a lower court did end up siding with the group of non-Black voters. That ruling resulted in the state and civil rights groups appealing to Supreme Court to allow them to continue to use the redrawn maps.
Both sides say a lot is at stake in this case, not for just Louisiana but for voters everywhere.
“It’s going to forecast how redistricting is conducted for decades to come. And for Louisianans, it’s going to determine the fairness of their map, representation for black voters,” said Wegner.
“What’s at stake here is basically whether a state can purposely classify voters based on their race and use a racial stereotype to draw congressional districts,” said Greim. “The question is really whether the 14th Amendment has any teeth at all.”
We already have gerrymandering on steroids throughout the country. I’d like to see every state draw its congressional districts in such a way as to minimize district perimeters while having equal populations of districts, with no regard for racial composition or anything else. But that’ll never happen.
The Supremes have previously ruled that district maps can be tailored to allow for racial representation.
A third of the population may be blacks-— it there is no proof that those blacks are evenly spread around the state.
They could have a VERY HIGH population in one district & NOT MUCH in the other 5 districts.
So “racial representation” is forced upon a particular race regardless of how that particular race might feel? How soon will it become necessary to draw lines based upon sex, special needs, or age?
Man, that current district map is creative, to say the least. “Can’t we all just get along?”
We’ve got a constipational crisis going on with the District “judges” and the SCOTUS is more interested in gerrymandering the voting districts in Louisiana in order to turn the joint blue.
Every single district drawn up to give blacks more representation gives the democrats another sure permanent vot towards running the House of Representatives.
Making a district who’s only goal is to get a certain race elected is in itself “racist”. So this not only is racist, but also a way to ensure the democrats can more easily win the house.
Gerrymandering is ok if done for the correct groups.
Nibbling around the edges. Stop stalling Roberts and DO YOUR JOB!
Although not common, the US Supreme Court has overturned itself more than 300 times, including Roe v. Wade & Chevron USA v. Natural Resources Defense Council.
The previous decisions allowing, and even mandating discrimination based on immutable characteristics in the establishment of Congressional Districts is ripe for being overturned.
Both sides say a lot is at stake in this case, not for just Louisiana but for voters everywhere.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.