Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry declared a state of emergency on Thursday suspending the state’s May 16 congressional primary — which has already begun — in a shockingly bold move to hastily gerrymander Louisiana’s districts following the SCOTUS decision to gut the Voting Rights Act on Wednesday.
Mail ballots have already been sent out, and early voting was set to begin on Saturday.
Landry claimed that the SCOTUS ruling constituted an “election emergency,” postponing the elections until either July 15 or “such time as determined by the Legislature,” the governor said in an executive order.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters earlier on Thursday that Landry had “no choice” but to suspend the election given the court decision.
The ink has not even dried on the 6-3 SCOTUS decision, with a 32-day waiting period for the ruling to be certified.
On Wednesday evening, the group of “non-African American” voters who prevailed earlier in the day in their challenge to Louisiana’s congressional map asked the Supreme Court to bypass its normal 32-day waiting period and send a copy of its opinion and order to the lower court immediately, making the decision final.
Black people make up approximately a third of Louisiana’s population.
Louisiana’s Republican legislature is expected to redraw maps that would eliminate at least one Democratic-held seat, and possibly a second.