Louisiana (8/5/2025) – Black Louisiana state lawmakers want a state judge to force Attorney General Liz Murrill to resume defending the state’s congressional districts currently being challenged before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus filed a writ Thursday with the 19th Judicial District Court that alleges Murrill is not upholding her constitutional duty to defend laws the legislature passes. She is instead arguing against the constitutionality of the congressional district map lawmakers approved last year in order to advance Republican political interests, according to the filing.
The lawmakers ask the court to force Murrill to either resume defending the map or take no position.
After previously defending the map, Murrill effectively switched sides and joined the white voters who challenged the constitutionality of the map once their case was scheduled for new arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Purely Political Purposes
“For purely political purposes, to assist efforts by the National Republican Party to maintain control of Congress in the 2026 mid-term elections, Attorney General Murrill has now flipped her position in the Supreme Court … and now on behalf of the State of Louisiana asserts [the map] is unconstitutional,” the Black Caucus’ petition reads.
At issue is a new congressional map the Legislature adopted last year that includes two majority Black districts, including a new one that stretches from Shreveport to Baton Rouge, slashing across the center of the state. The map is currently before the Supreme Court in the case Callais v. Louisiana, in which the white plaintiffs argue race determined the boundaries of the new 6th Congressional District.
The outcome could decide the future of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits election laws or procedures that purposefully discriminate on the basis of race, color or membership in a language minority group.
“This pleading is so patently baseless it’s sanctionable,” Murrill said in a statement to the Illuminator. “Among other things, the state district court has no jurisdiction over the arguments the state attorney general makes in the United States Supreme Court on matters of federal law and the federal constitution.”
This is a developing story
Source: La Illuminator. Author: Piper Hutchinson
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