On Friday, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously decided that Louisiana Legislature would be given one final chance to decide whether or not to make alterations to its congressional district map. They set the deadline for this decision to be made before January 15th. If the Legislature is unable to come to a conclusion, the court will move forward with a constitutional challenge to the map.

Traditionally, redistricting is an obligation held by each state after each census. However, Louisiana had temporarily halted their redistricting for two years while the Supreme Court was working on a similar case in Alabama. Judge Leslie Southwick, who had been nominated to the appeals court by former President George W. Bush, stated, “An opportunity to adopt a new plan is appropriate since redistricting is a quintessential obligation of a state after a census.” The court settled the Alabama case, determining that the state was required to redraw their map to include a second district with a majority-black population.

Now that they have moved to the Louisiana case, the similarities are obvious. Southwick noted that Louisiana had only one majority-black district out of six total. “The black population is one-third of Louisiana’s residential population, yet it has only one out of six opportunities to elected their preferred candidates.”

Outgoing governor John Bel Edwards vetoed the current map which contains only one majority-black district. However, the veto was overridden by the Legislatures Republican majority. Edwards stated that redrawing the map was essential and was about “simple math, basic fairness, and the rule of law”. On Friday he concluded in his statement that “With the 5th Circuits action today, I remain confident that we will have a fair map with two majority-black districts before the congressional elections next year.”

Edwards did not confirm if he had intentions to call a special session considering new maps before the end of his term in January. If a new map is not approved before the deadline, a federal court will move forward with a civil rights lawsuit. This could result in the court implementing a new district plan in which they will determine a final constitutional map “to be used for the 2024 Louisiana congressional elections."