BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — A federal judge ruled that Louisiana must draw a new congressional map by mid-January.
According to a Nov. 10 filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth District, the Louisiana Legislature has until Jan. 15, 2024, to enact a new congressional redistricting map that has two majority-minority districts.
The appeals court’s ruling is not a final decision on the merits of the original map.
“Redistricting is a state legislative function,” said Gov.-elect Jeff Landry in a statement Friday. “Based on today’s ruling, I will call for a special session so our Legislature may resolve this issue.”
In October, The Hill reported that the Supreme Court denied two emergency requests to restart the redrawing of the state’s congressional map.
The Louisiana Legislature passed a congressional map in 2022 that only had one majority-minority district despite 33% of the state’s population being Black.
