Louisiana panel backs redistricting plan dissolving a Black-majority district, boosting GOP seats

A marathon overnight hearing ended with the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee approving SB121, a redistricting map that dissolves Louisiana’s majority-Black 6th District, potentially giving Republicans five of six U.S. House seats. The vote was party-line (4-3) in favor of Morris’s plan; a rival proposal (SB407) that would have created two more competitive districts failed. The move follows the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais that the current map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The bill now goes to the Senate for a vote, with a House committee to consider it next week and a June 1 deadline to pass both chambers. Public testimony was intense, with voting-rights advocates and Democrats expressing opposition and Republicans defending the plan.