In Louisiana, a federal appeals court found that a revised state congressional map had violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 - diminishing the influence of Black voters within the state. State legislators were ordered to complete a new map reconfiguring the voting districts no later than January 15th.

In recent years, several Republican-led states throughout the country have faced increased scrutiny by the NAACP and many other groups advocating for equal rights. These groups have claimed that the GOP was discriminating certain races by gerrymandering the district maps to exclude Black voters.

The Fifth Circuit court cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from June which showed that Alabama, a Republican majority state, had violated the Voting Rights Act by excluding Black voters from the redistricting process. The court ordered a redrawing of the congressional map after lawmakers had submitted a revised map which did not comply with the Supreme Court order to include a Black and minority voter pool.

Louisiana governor-elect Jeff Landry released a statement claiming that his administration planned to call a special legislative session regarding this matter as soon as he took office in January. However, he was uncertain if there would be enough time to complete the revised map before the January 15th deadline set by the court.

Traditionally, congressional maps are redrawn to reflect population changes which are recorded during each Census. The latest Census in 2020 showed a 4% increase in the Black population in Louisiana and a nearly 6% drop in the white population over the last decade. However, despite these statistics, the Republican majority House approved a map which only had one majority Black congressional district out of a total of six.

Governor Edwards vetoed the map in March of 2022, claiming that it was a clear violation of Section 2 of the Civil Rights-era legislation. The House overturned his veto which resulted in several advocacy groups to file a lawsuit challenging the map. It was ruled that this map had been gerrymandered along racial lines. However, the map could not be modified due to a rule that election procedures could not be altered around Election Day - the gerrymandered map was still utilized during the 2022 election.

Outgoing-governor John Bel Edwards has declined to call forth a legislative session before the end of his term, stating, “I remain confident that we will have a fair map with two majority Black districts before the congressional elections next year.”