La. Supreme Court map advances with justices still at odds
22nd January 2024 · 0 Comments
By Greg LaRose
Contributing Writer
(lailluminator.com) – A proposal to add another majority-Black district to the seven elected Louisiana Supreme Court seats advanced in the state legislature last Thursday, but the process revealed continued differences among the justices the map would impact.
Associate Justice William Crain appeared before the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee to support House Bill 8, a proposal from Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Pineville. The Johnson bill reflects a map Crain and four other associate justices submitted last month to then Gov.-elect Jeff Landry, Attorney General-elect Liz Murrill and legislative leaders ahead of this week’s special session.
Its boundary revisions create a second majority-Black district that connects Monroe to Baton Rouge, and it also splits a dozen parishes among different districts to reach its racial and voter representation goals. In doing so, the districts of Chief Justice John Weimer and Associate Justice Scott Crichton are drastically altered. Both men went public in late December with their opposition to the map Crain wants, with both adding they also support the creation of a second majority-Black district.
A 2021 resolution from the legislature directed the Louisiana Supreme Court to suggest changes to its districts so that they comply with the federal Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in elections. In 2019, a lawsuit was filed against the court seeking updates to districts that have been changed only once in 103 years and not since 1997 based on Census figures that are now 34 years old.
Unlike other political divisions in the state, Louisiana lawmakers aren’t required by law to update state Supreme Court districts. When they do, they don’t have to apply the “one man, one vote” requirement that results in districts nearly equal in population.
Asked whether Weimer had any input on drawing the map in Johnson’s bill, Crain said the justices never met as a group to discuss district boundaries.
“This was done individually, by individual to look at the districts because it’s really, really hard,” Crain said. “…The chief (justice) … he was provided (the map) – I mean, I don’t remember the day -but it was several days before the letter went out to the governor-elect and the other members.”
Sen. Greg Miller, R-Norco, asked Crain if it would be fair to conclude Weimer was not involved in creating the proposed map.
“He was involved as we were all involved,” Crain said, repeating that justices did not “conference” together to work on the legislation.
In his late December letter to the incoming governor, attorney general and legislative leaders, Weimer said he didn’t see the map from his five colleagues until the day after Christmas when he was asked to sign their proposal. Their letter to the same officials was sent the next day.
Weimer’s letter, sent Dec. 30, notes the documents that accompanied his colleagues’ map were dated Dec. 5, which the chief justice said indicates they were prepared earlier in the month but not shared with until him the last week of the month.
Johnson’s map takes Weimer’s hometown of Thibodaux out of his district, which the chief justice described as “grossly and oddly shaped” in his letter. The Lafourche Parish seat is placed in a new District 6 that stretches from Baton Rouge to lower Jefferson Parish, excluding all of St. James and portions of other River Parishes that are in District 7, the majority-Black district Associate Justice Piper Griffin represents.
“The lack of compact districts in the proposal makes it virtually impossible for voters to know or understand who they are entitled to vote for, which leads to a lack of voter interest,” Weimer wrote. “Voters in 12 parishes on different sides of a road will have different justices.”
Crichton’s District 2 was the most radically altered in the bill. He also sent a letter to state leaders opposing the map from the five justices. Crain said District 2 was sacrificed because Crichton reaches his term limit at the end of the year, and redistricting principles call for incumbents to be protected.
The current District 2 runs from Northwest Louisiana along most of the Texas border. In Johnson’s map, it’s shifted to Northeast Louisiana and stretches down the Mississippi River into Baton Rouge to become the new majority-Black district.
Committee chair Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, submitted the only change made to Johnson’s bill, and it came in the closing minutes of the meeting. It moves Livingston Parish from the Northshore-based District 1 into District 6. It also takes a portion of Jefferson Parish and moves it from District 6 to District 1. The two majority-Black districts were not affected, Fields said.
Committee members did not dispute the change, but Johnson and Crain appeared befuddled over the impact of Fields’ amendment.
“It destroys the compromise that the court put together,” Crain was overheard telling Johnson as the amendment was placed on his bill.
Changes in district populations and voter-makeup numbers for Fields’ amendment were not immediately available Thursday evening.
The full Senate could take up Johnson’s bill Friday. Its calendar already includes six other bills related to the Louisiana Supreme Court that appear to be in limbo.
Sen. Thomas Pressly, R-Shreve-port, has two bills that also redraw the court’s districts, add a second Black district and split just six parishes. He has made known his opposition to the division of Caddo Parish in Johnson’s bill. Pressly declined to comment Thursday on the status of his proposals.
Sens. Blake Miguez, R-Erath, and Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, each have proposals that call for all justices to face statewide elections. Seabaugh also wants to increase the number of justices from seven to nine.
This article originally published in the January 22, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
