Appeal filed in state Supreme Court in Louisiana's ongoing congressional mapping battle
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS)—After three federal judges in Louisiana rejected a Congressional map citing violations of the Fourteenth Amendment, a motion to appeal was filed Wednesday morning in Louisiana Supreme Court Western District, Monroe Division.
District Judges David C. Joseph and Robert R. Summerhays wrote the majority opinion, and Circuit Judge Carl E. Stewart wrote a lengthy dissent.
In their judgment, Joseph and Summerhays wrote that the map, which was designed to create a second majority-Black district to meet requirements set by federal court order out of the Louisiana Middle District, does not meet Equal Protection Clause requirements. They called the current layout an “impermissible racial gerrymander.”
The current map nearly cuts the 4th District, covering western Louisiana, in half with the 6th District. It’s drawn as a narrow, diagonal arm that runs from northwest Louisiana to Baton Rouge. The ruling, as it stands, means the state can’t use the current map in any future elections.
The motion to appeal was filed May 1 by attorney Tracie L. Washington and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) against Nancy Landry in her capacity as Louisiana's Secretary of State.