13-03-2025
Louisiana vs. the ‘non-African Americans'
But as Marina Jenkins, executive director of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, pointed out, it's the old legal racial switcheroo. And history is rhyming.
'The argument put forth by the plaintiffs seeking the requirement of race blindness, even in the course of remedying racial vote dilution, is not new,' Jenkins said Wednesday, previewing the March 24 argument to members of the press. 'It dates back to the civil rights movement, when opponents of voting rights protections for minority groups used the same argument to oppose addressing racial discrimination. The irony and hypocrisy is hard to miss.'
The National Democratic Redistricting Committee was among the groups that
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Meanwhile, the Supreme Court issued a ruling rejecting a similarly racially rigged map in Alabama. So rather than fight, Louisiana lawmakers decided to go back to the map-drawing board and try to comply with the justices' ruling.
Lawmakers drafted and the governor approved a new map that included
But then the state was sued by the 'non-African American' group, which said that the
new
map was forbidden because state officials drafted it primarily on the basis of race. Yes: They argued that the state violated the law by complying with a ruling that said you can't racially discriminate against Black people.
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Now Louisiana officials are crying uncle, saying they will be damned with Black voter dilution lawsuits if they throw out the new map and damned with racial discrimination lawsuits from non-Afrian American voters if they don't. They asked the Supreme Court to sort it all out instead.
Here's the bad news for democracy lovers: The Supreme Court has, for more than a decade, become increasingly critical of the racial components of the Voting Rights Act itself. In 2013,
So the non-African Americans must be feeling pretty bullish. They'll make their case to the justices later this month. I'll let you know how it goes.
