A trial is now underway at the federal courthouse in downtown Shreveport to decide whether the state legislature’s latest congressional map for Louisiana is constitutional. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals appointed a three judge panel to make that determination in the case of Callais v. Landry. The panel includes U.S. District Court Judges David Joseph and Robert Summerhays. President Trump nominated both men and both sit in Lafayette. The third member of the panel is 5th Circuit Judge Carl Stewart, nominated by President Clinton, who sits in Shreveport.
This trial comes three months after Governor Jeff Landry called a special session in January, shortly after taking office, to replace the congressional maps approved by the state legislature in 2022. Those efforts had failed to create a second Black majority district, out of Louisiana’s six districts. That’s despite the fact that one-third of the state’s population is Black.
Currently, the only Black majority congressional district is District 2. It encompasses most of New Orleans, reaching west and north to Baton Rouge, and is represented by Congressman Troy Carter.
Within a few days of the special session, legislators quickly approved a new map. By January 22, Governor Landry had signed and approved it.
The new configuration transforms District 6 into a swath of land that includes parts of Shreveport, Alexandria, Acadiana and Baton Rouge. The district had contained much of Baton Rouge, its suburbs and south to Thibodaux. Republican Congressman Garret Graves currently represents the district, which becomes the second black majority congressional district in Louisiana.
But LSU Shreveport Political Science Professor Jeffrey Sadow expects the new map to be thrown out because it’s similar to previous maps that were rejected by the courts. “The thing that’s likely to cause this current map to founder is the fact that there’s not much in the way of communities of interest being protected by the current map. So, you go and, for example, and chop up Shreveport, Alexandria, Lafayette, and Baton Rouge.”
The three judges on the panel have several options. They can keep the latest map or send it back to the legislature to try again. Another option would have the judges draw their own map.
The panel set the deadline for a decision in May so candidates will know which districts they will run in. But Professor Sadow says with such a tight timeframe, and appeals likely, he does not see a new map put in place until after the November 2024 election cycle.
