NEW ORLEANS – Attorneys representing Louisiana in a lawsuit against the state legislative redistricting plans passed in 2022 are arguing that a key piece of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional and should not be applied to the state.
The case could produce a bellwether decision that impacts Black voting strength in several states where similar challenges have arisen.
Arguments were presented Tuesday to a three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in the case
Nairne v. Landry, in which Black voters are challenging the most recent legislative redistricting maps as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.
Last February, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick of the Middle District of Louisiana ruled that maps Louisiana lawmakers drew two years ago to update the boundaries of their own districts
do not give Black voters a fair opportunity to elect their own representatives. Dick’s ruling came after the 2023 elections, when a new class of lawmakers were elected, yielding a Republican supermajority in both chambers.
While Dick’s ruling blocks legislative elections from being held in every district while the lawsuit plays out, plaintiffs in the case agreed to let special elections for two vacant Louisiana Senate seats go forward in February.
The state has appealed Dick’s decision.
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits voting laws or procedures that purposefully discriminate on the basis of race, color or membership in a language minority group.
“Conditions that originally justified those measures no longer apply to Louisiana,” Deputy Solicitor General Morgan Brungard argued. “We ask the court to reverse and hold Section 2 unconstitutional as it applies to Louisiana.”
Brungard argued that Black voter turnout in Louisiana is sufficiently high enough that Section 2 is no longer necessary.
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The three 5th Circuit judges presiding are James Dennis, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, Catharina Haynes, an appointee of President George W. Bush, and Irma Ramirez, an appointee of President Barack Obama.
For over a decade, conservative attorneys and officials have sought to whittle down the Voting Rights Act.
Nairne is one vehicle politicians have sought to use as a test case against Section 2.
Last year,
Republican attorneys general from 14 states filed an amicus brief in the case arguing Section 2 is unconstitutional. That action followed a 2023 decision in the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis that only the federal government can seek an enforcement ruling under the Voting Rights Act, rather than individuals.
The
federal government and voting rights advocates have pushed back on that stance.
Every case brought under Section 2 is likely to be used as a test case for those that seek to have that portion of the Voting Rights Act overturned, advocates have said.
The U.S. Department of Justice intervened in
Nairne in response to the state’s arguments against Section 2 but remained neutral on the other aspects of the case.
Noah Bokat-Lindell, a DOJ civil rights attorney, argued states cannot get a carveout from a generally applicable statute. For example, they cannot become exempt from the Americans with Disabilities Act because a state argues it doesn’t discriminate against disabled people, he said.
In a press conference after the hearing, Attorney General Liz Murrill argued that if Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act was ruled unconstitutional, Black voters could still count on the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“Those are legal arguments that we wanted to preserve so that they eventually might make it up to the United States Supreme Court,” Murrill said. “They’ve also been percolating in a number of other cases related to the scope and continuing application of Section 2 to states under current conditions.”
If Dick’s decision is upheld, legislators will have another opportunity to redraw the boundaries of their districts. Dick, an Obama federal court appointee, did not specify in her ruling the number of majority Black districts necessary to comply with the Voting Rights Act.
Plaintiffs have said the state should add six in the Louisiana House and three in the Senate. Currently, 28 out of 105 House districts are majority Black, as are 11 of 39 Senate districts.
State Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Baton Rouge, who is Black, said he intends to file a bill with a new redistricting plan in the upcoming legislative session, which begins April 14.
Also at issue in
Nairne is whether Dick erred in blocking the entire redistricting plan. Attorneys for the state argue the plaintiffs only have standing to challenge the districts where they live.
It is not known when the 5th Circuit panel will rule on the state’s appeal.
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Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: [email protected].
