Louisiana legislators have until Jan. 15 to enact new congressional map, court says

The Louisiana Legislature has until Jan. 15 to enact a new congressional map after a lower court last year ruled that the current political boundaries dilute the power of the state’s Black voters, a federal New Orleans appeals court said Friday.

However, whether current Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards will call a special session to redraw the political boundaries and if Republican Gov.-elect Jeff Landry, who will be inaugurated Jan. 8, will have enough time to call a special redistricting session and meet the court’s deadline has yet to be determined.

If the Legislature does not pass a new map by mid-January, then the lower district court should conduct a trial and “decide on a plan for the 2024 elections,” according to the order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth District.

The political tug-of-war and legal battle over Louisiana’s GOP-drawn congressional map has been going on for more than a year and a half — which has included Edwards vetoing the political boundaries and the Legislature overriding his veto, the first time in nearly three decades that lawmakers refused to accept a governor’s refusal of a bill they had passed.