Federal Court Delivers Major Win for Black Voters in Louisiana State Redistricting Battle
Source: democracydocket.
Federal Court Delivers Major Win for Black Voters in Louisiana State Redistricting Battle
By Yunior Rivas August 14, 2025
Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge. AdobeStock/SeanPavonePhoto
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling Thursday, striking down Louisiana’s state legislative maps for violating the Voting Rights Act.
The court agreed that the maps “packed” and “cracked” Black communities — concentrating some Black voters into a small number of districts and splitting others across multiple districts — in ways that unlawfully diluted their power to elect their preferred candidates under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
“The State’s challenge to the constitutionality of Section 2 is foreclosed by decades of binding precedent affirming Congress’s broad enforcement authority under the Fifteenth Amendment,” the court wrote. “The State’s assertion that Congress must periodically re-justify legislation passed under the Reconstruction Amendments finds no support in the constitutional text or case law.”
Louisiana had argued that conditions in the state changed enough to make race-conscious remedies unnecessary.
The court flatly rejected that claim. .......................
Read more: https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/federal-court-delivers-major-win-for-black-voters-in-louisiana-state-redistricting-battle/
Marc Elias
@marcelias.bsky.social
· 1h
🚨BREAKING: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling Thursday, striking down Louisiana’s state legislative maps for violating the Voting Rights Act.
www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
🚨BREAKING: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling Thursday, striking down Louisiana’s state legislative maps for violating the Voting Rights Act. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
— Marc Elias (@marcelias.bsky.social) 2025-08-14T20:42:25.414Z
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