BATON ROUGE, La. (WGNO) — The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Alabama’s congressional redistricting plan adopted in November of 2021 says the state violated the Voting Rights Act and must be redrawn to include two majority Black districts instead of one.
This decision can ultimately affect a Louisiana-based congressional map case called Robinson v. Ardoin.
“It is only fair per the constitution and per re-apportionment that Louisiana should have a second minority-majority district,” State Representative Troy Carter said.
State Senator Sharon Huett, of Slidell, who is currently running for governor, believes Louisiana’s districts should stay as is.
She released a statement about the Alabama ruling saying, “We are looking at the opinion out of the Supreme Court today. When we adopted these plans, we were confident that they were drawn in compliance with the United States constitution and the Voting Rights Act. Nothing in today’s opinion changes that view. We look forward to our actions being vindicated in court, moving beyond these lawsuits, and continuing our work to help the people of Louisiana.”
On the other hand, several officials are praising this decision, saying this Alabama ruling re-affirms that Louisiana should have two of its six districts majorly Black.
“Their situation is not as strong as ours, so it gives us great hope. Their population of African Americans is 27%. Louisiana is 33%,” Carter said.
While this ruling is considered a win for some state officials, there are still some time before they can begin celebrating their own Supreme Court victory.
“The people that have been in the trenches that have been working on this have done a phenomenal job and now we just kind of got to wait and let the system do its thing,” Carter said.
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