Louisiana governor signs new Congressional maps into law

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) signed a bill Monday approving new Congressional maps that will create a second majority-Black district.

The Louisiana state legislature approved the updated Congressional maps last week which will redraw the Sixth Congressional District to be state’s second majority-Black district. The district is currently represented by Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.). The state’s 2^nd Congressional District remained the other majority-Black district.

“Today, we began the process of necessary structural change to our election system, allowing for a cleaner and simpler final ballot, and we took the pen out of the hand of a non-elected judge and placed it in the hands of the people,” Landry said on X, formerly Twitter, in his post announcing the signed bill.

He also signed bills relating to the primary system in the state as well as allocating funds to certain state agencies on Monday.

The battle in Lousiana over the congressional districts have been ongoing for more than a year. Former Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) vetoed a set of maps passed by the state legislature in 2022, arguing that the proposed maps were in violation of the Voting Rights Act because there was only one majority-Black district.

The veto was overridden by the state legislature that year. A federal judge later ordered the legislature to create a second majority-Black district, but the Supreme Court paused the ruling and allowed the map to be used in the 2022 midterms, where Graves won his fifth term in office.

After the Supreme Court invalidated Alabama’s congressional maps last year, the case was taken up by a federal appeals court that ruled that the legislature needed to add a second majority-Black district by mid-January.