Legislators seek more time to comply with redistricting order

Louisiana’s legislative leaders are asking for at least 10 more days to comply with a federal judge’s order to redraw congressional districts so two have Black majorities. On Tuesday, the judge scheduled a hearing on that request, to be held Thursday.

Also Tuesday, a federal appeals court scheduled arguments July 8 about Judge Shelly Dick’s ruling that the current districts violate the Voting Rights Act.

The Republican-dominated legislature and Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, have been fighting over the issue since February, when the legislature approved a congressional map with white majorities in five of six districts.

Edwards vetoed it, saying that because Louisiana’s population is nearly onethird Black, at least two districts should have African American majorities. The legislature overrode his veto.

Dick ordered legislators to create new districts, including two that are majority Black, by next Monday.

There’s no way to do that, Senate President Page Cortez and House Speaker Clay Schexnayder said in a motion filed Monday.

The six-day session is scheduled to start today and end Monday. The legislators are asking for at least until June 30.

The state Constitution and legislative rules make it impossible for a redistricting bill created in one house to be acted on in the other before a session’s seventh day unless rules are suspended, according to their motion.

Dick ordered both Cortez and Schexnayder to testify in person at Thursday’s hearing.

The redistricting special session from Feb. 1 to 18 was focused on a “status quo plan … that seeks to protect voter expectations” — a replica of the one approved in 2011, the motion said.

Dick has ordered a very different plan, creating “a difficult and time-consuming task” requiring much negotiation, the motion said.

Those representing areas where a majority Black district might be created “are almost certain to have differing ideas of how communities of interest should be preserved, joined, and separated, and these discussions and negotiation will take time,” the motion said.

In addition, it said a six-day session would not give state residents a chance to come to the Capitol and tell legislators what they want.

“The current remedial schedule would compel the Legislature to redistrict (if at all) behind closed doors, without meaningful public input, and without opportunity to respond to that input,” said a statement by Cortez.