‘The Supreme Court’s decision today undermines the basic principle that voting practices should not discriminate on account of race and that is wrong.’
Supporters of the new district, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, say the lower court decision effectively means Louisiana has no congressional map in place for the fall election, and no realistic chance for the Legislature to adopt one in time.
Whatever comes out of the court could impact the makeup of the next U.S. Congress.
In a pretrial brief, attorneys for the state and local chapters of the civil rights group cite data showing Black and Latino voters are more than twice as likely to lack a qualifying ID with a photo than white voters.
‘The people of Louisiana deserve better from our Federal Courts. Either the Legislature is in control of drawing a map or Federal Courts are, but they both can’t be!’
The National Democratic Redistricting Committee said backers of the new map will likely seek an emergency order from the Supreme Court to keep the new map in place while appeals are pursued.
‘We all know that one of the main reasons it was drawn the way it was, was because Gov. Jeff Landry wants to get rid of Congressman (Garret) Graves.’
The Republican nomination is being decided in a runoff between former state senator Dick Brewbaker and attorney Caroleene Dobson.
‘SB1 takes Alabama backwards as it violates the law, restricts our basic Constitutional Amendment rights, obliterates freedom of speech. It marginalizes voters’ access to the ballot box.’
Opponents describe the mass-voter challengers as ‘vigilantes’ who are upsetting the balance between updating voter rolls and ensuring everyone has the right to vote.
