Louisiana: A new congressional map leaves committee

May 13th, the senate committee in charge of redistricting, after 9 hours of testimonies, advanced SB 121, a bill to establish a new congressional map in the state. This new map would keep one minority-majority district but get rid of the other.

This map looks like the map that favored republicans back in 2022 with 5 republicans and one democrat. Yet, the map was blocked by a federal judge in 2022 due to it violating the Voting Rights Act. With this map, New Orleans would stay in a minority-majority district represented by Rep. Troy Carter, but the 6th district will be redistricted.

Sen. Samuel Jenkins declared that the new map would face more legal issues in the future due to the only minority-majority district accounting for a 60% black voting population. According to Sen. Jenkins, this map demonstrates racial gerrymandering that is illegal according to the decision by the Supreme Court.

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