Appeals court blocks hearings on drawing a second majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana

By KEVIN McGILL
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge’s plan to hold hearings next week to draw up congressional boundary lines that would give Louisiana a second majority-Black district has been blocked by an appeals court. Supporters of establishing a second such district had hoped a recent Supreme Court ruling upholding a redrawn map in Alabama would soon result in similar results in Louisiana. But a panel of judges at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 ruling that Baton Rouge-based U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick was moving too quickly.