Yesterday the Louisiana Senate voted along party lines to advance a congressional map that maintains a single majority-Black district, despite repeated threats from civil rights groups that the plan would result in costly litigation.
This vote came right after the Republican chair of the Senate’s map-drawing committee, Sen. Sharon Hewitt of Slidell, disclosed that she had discussed Voting Rights Act compliance with an attorney at BakerHostetler, though she initially resisted revealing the attorney’s name.
After this admission, Sen. Ed Price of Gonzales asked that the vote on the congressional maps be delayed until a public records request could be processed showing the communications between Hewitt and the BakerHostetler attorney, Kate McKnight.
Senate officials told lawmakers that information from the law firm would be made available to all members of the Senate. Hewitt said she hadn’t received a final report from the attorneys.
With a third of the state identifying as Black, civil rights groups have argued that a map that doesn’t create a second majority-Black congressional district would violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Either way, the bill was passed and will now be taken up by the House.
