No other elected official is more intertwined with redistricting than Attorney General Jeff Landry, says Jeremy Alford in his latest column.
“His office is on pace to become more involved with redistricting litigation than any other state Justice Department in recent memory,” Alford writes in his latest column. “With two related cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and two others kicking up dust in Louisiana parishes, it’s an early indication that next term’s redistricting session at the Capitol will be super-charged.”
Landry says he’s so actively involved in redistricting—when the state Legislature redraws the lines of elected districts based on U.S. Census data—because of increased litigation surrounding the issue.
“As the attorney general I’m involved in more redistricting cases not because I am actively seeking them, but because the litigation involving redistricting has increased,” Landry tells Alford.
The attorney general’s office isn’t actively working on redistricting legislation for the upcoming regular session. Instead, Landry is part of a group of attorneys general that filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court to rebuff claims of partisan gerrymandering spelled out in a case involving the Wisconsin General Assembly, Alford writes. The Supreme Court is reviewing a federal district court’s ruling that the assembly unconstitutionally drafted uneven districts to protect GOP turf.
Landry is worried the court could write a broad opinion that would in turn alter maps at not only the state level, but also the congressional level.
“If this case goes the wrong way, a district like (Congressman) Cedric Richmond’s could be in peril,” he tells Alford.
Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or on Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
