Legislators may feel they’re in bondage, but it’s their fault

Nobody even had time to unpack, aggrieved Louisiana legislators complain, before Gov. John Bel Edwards — and, most relevantly, a U.S. District Court judge — called them back to the State Capitol.

What they’ll actually do when they return in a special session only weeks after the regular session, we don’t know. There appears to be little political will to do what U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick ordered, which is redraw the proposed new maps for Louisiana’s districts in Congress.

It’s a nice political tangle. But the reason for all the confusion? Legislators did the maps for the political benefit of current members of Congress — and, more importantly for themselves when they redrew their own House and Senate districts.

Many states do what Louisiana should have done, which is appoint independent commissions to redraw the lines to ensure that people are properly represented and that the requirements of the U.S. Voting Rights Act are met — the same requirements which Dick ruled were not met by the incumbent protection maps drawn in Baton Rouge this spring.

We don’t know how all this will untangle. Maybe there will be a new map that gives Black voters a realistic chance to win in two of six districts, as they are about a third of the population. Maybe there will just be more litigation.

But legislators appear to be on schedule to show up at the State Capitol, interrupting their return to normal life. For that, they can’t blame the judge or the governor or anybody but themselves, for choosing the political path on district maps.