Federal judges began listening to opening arguments in Shreveport today regarding a lawsuit challenging Louisiana’s new congressional map that created a second majority Black district, USA Today Network reports.
The lawsuit challenging the map, specifically the Black 6th Congressional District, argues that the boundaries stretching from Baton Rouge to Lafayette to Alexandria to Shreveport are based solely on race and therefore unconstitutional.
A three-judge panel including Judge Carl Stewart, a Bill Clinton appointee from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and Judges Robert Summershays and David Joseph, both Donald Trump appointees from the Western District, will judge the case.
The plaintiffs were first to present their case in what is expected to be a three-day trial. Republican state Sens. Alan Seabaugh and Thomas Pressly, both of Shreveport, testified that they believe the map passed by the Republican-dominated Legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry was factored on race alone.
Defendants say race was only one factor that drove the map, arguing that preserving Louisiana’s considerable power in the GOP-majority U.S. House was the driving force by protecting the incumbencies of Speaker Mike Johnson (4th District), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (1st District) and Congresswoman Julia Letlow (5th District), a member of the House Appropriations Committee.
Editor’s Note: Plaintiff Rolfe McCollister is an opinion columnist for Business Report.
