On April 14, just a few hours after Arkansas passed the nation’s first new Congressional plan, GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal capped a turbulent legislative session by signing a new six-seat Congressional map into law. The winner in the new map: GOP Rep. Charles Boustany, who largely got his way and got to keep most of his southwestern Louisiana district. The big losers in the new map: freshman GOP Rep. Jeff Landry, whose district was chopped up four different ways, and Democrats, who may be locked out of all but the 2nd CD for the next decade.
But the drama in Louisiana may not be over: Louisiana is covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, and the Department of Justice or a three-judge federal panel could still deny Louisiana approval on the grounds that the new map failed to create a second African-American majority district. If either entity strikes down the Jindal-signed map, the state would have a chance to go back to the drawing board and convert GOP Rep. Rodney Alexander's 5th CD into a black majority district
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