Just when Democrats thought they could count on picking up new Black majority seats in Alabama and Louisiana, a three-judge federal panel threw a wrench in that math on Tuesday when it struck down the new congressional map Louisiana's legislature passed in January to comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Now, there's considerable uncertainty over the lines the Pelican State will use for its elections in just six months.
This is the second time in two years a Louisiana map has been struck down on racial grounds. In June 2022, Obama-appointed federal judge Shelly Dick struck down the legislature's 5R-1D map for failing to add a second Black majority seat. The Supreme Court put a hold on that ruling and folded the case into the similar Alabama case of Allen v. Milligan, and in June 2023 interpreted the VRA to mandate that additional Black opportunity seats be drawn.
But the current trial panel, made up of two Trump appointees and a Clinton appointee, went hard the other direction, ruling 2-1 in favor of a group of white
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