NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Louisiana lawmakers have less than a month to come up with a new congressional map or a panel of judges will draw it for them.
That mandate comes from a three-person panel of federal appellate judges who threw out the legislature’s newest map just last week.
Time is short because district lines need to be set in time for fall congressional elections.
The panel of judges gave state lawmakers until June 3 to present an acceptable congressional map, or have one imposed on them instead.
The panel last week rejected a map passed during a January special legislative session, which would have created Louisiana’s second Black-majority district. The panel found by a 2-1 vote that race was the predominant factor in that map’s boundaries, which the judges said violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
Meanwhile, the judges will be making their own remedial plan, in case the lawmakers fail to act in time.
A spokesperson for Secretary of State Nancy Landry, however, said the June 3 deadline is too lax. The office said May 15 is its hard deadline to implement a map for the November election ballots.
Attorney General Liz Murrill said the state is appealing to the US Supreme Court to have the rejected map reinstated.
“Today, three federal judges who never spent a day running an election have ignored uncontradicted testimony that we need a map by May 15, and once again turned Louisiana’s congressional elections upside down,” Murrill said in a statement released Tuesday. “That’s on the tails of another federal judge, the 5th Circuit, and the Supreme Court doing it in the last round of congressional elections.
“At a time when concerns about election integrity are higher than ever, this ruling threatens the ability of the Secretary of State to conduct a stable and fair election in a presidential election year in Louisiana. We will be heading this week to the US Supreme Court.”
Davante Lewis, the Public Service Commissioner for the 3rd district of Louisiana, said Murrill’s statement is nonsensical and accused the AG of using bombastic language.
Lewis said the court gave the secretary of state and the state an opportunity Monday night to file briefs explaining their concerns about moving the deadline past the original date of May 15. However, he said the judges felt their testimony was not compelling, because both had mentioned in other cases they could have a map as late as May or early June.
Lewis said Louisiana will have a map in place before November. But what that map looks like is still up in the air.
“Everyone wants a map that is fair and just to the people of Louisiana, that adequately represents the population and gives every Louisianan the opportunity to have a member of congress of their choosing,” Lewis said.
“How you get there varies. There are multiple ways you can get there. I think what we have to do at this moment is keep our eyes on the prize that a fair map is needed. And, whatever the courts do, that they ensure that all Louisianans are fairly represented and that this legal strategy and legal confusion does not end in another election of people not having their voices adequately represented in Washington DC.”
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Click Here to report it. Please include the headline.
Subscribe to the Fox 8 YouTube channel.
Copyright 2024 WVUE. All rights reserved.
More fog is predicted for Southeast Louisiana on Wednesday morning after a serious pile-up in foggy conditions on Tuesday.
The Dense Fog Advisory will go into effect for Southeast Louisiana at midnight on Wednesday, December 18th and last through about 10 a.m. the same day.
According to WDSU News, fog was seen in the areas of The Causeway bridge and Lake Pontchartrain on Monday and Tuesday mornings. Poor visibility caused by the fog is thought to have caused the 50 vehicle pile-up on the Causeway bridge on Tuesday morning. 33 people were hurt and at least 30 were left stranded on The Causeway bridge in the incident, which The Causeway Police Department says may be the worst accident in the bridge’s history.
Wednesday’s fog is predicted to be more impactful than the previous two days, which did not see official fog advisories. Drivers are advised to use caution during their morning commutes.
BATON ROUGE – Tuesday, the state’s Electoral College members cast their officials votes for U.S. president.
The eight members will cast their votes under oath for the next U.S. president and vice president.
All eight of them will be voting for president-elect Donald Trump after the Republican claimed the Louisiana votes.
You can watch the process on our YouTube page here:
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – The Louisiana Legislative Auditor released a report on December 16 focused on the seclusion, restraint, and abuse of special education students in public schools. This is the third audit from the LLA in the last two years as it has looked into the complaint process and monitoring of special education services in previous reports.
This stems from a nationwide report released in 2023 by the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights. That report found that students in special education classes make up 14% of the total K-12 enrollment, but account for 81% of physically restrained students, and 75% of students secluded.
According to Gina Brown, the audit manager for the Louisiana Legislative Auditor, nobody is monitoring the use of seclusion and restraint across the public school systems in Louisiana.
“It’s not required anywhere to be monitored and so it’s not being monitored. LDOE it is our opinion that LDOE does have the authority to monitor this,” Brown says.
The Louisiana Department of Education responded to the audit, saying it “disagrees with the LLA’s contention that LDOE has the necessary authority to monitor how school systems use seclusion and restraint.”
Brown says in Louisiana, school systems are required to report the number of incidents where students are physically restrained or secluded. She says the data is collected but not really used for anything.
“We found after going into field work and interviewing teachers and talking to those different school districts, we found a discrepancy between what was being reported to the department. Compared to the number of instances that were actually happening at the school,” Brown says.
Back in 2022, the Louisiana Legislature approved $8.8 million for the department of education to give to schools to install cameras in special education classrooms. The funding went into effect in 2023, but so far only $2.2 million has been spent. Brown says that is most likely because parents are unaware that they have to actually request cameras be put into those classrooms for the school to then require it.
“If parents were more informed that they can request this form, they can request a camera, they may be more likely. We might see more of this funding being used,” Brown says.
According to Ted Beasley, the communications director for the Louisiana Department of Education, there have been a total of 181 requests for cameras and 988 cameras installed. Some schools did it proactively.
Another potential problem the audit highlights is the requirements around certifications for teachers. Public school teachers are required to be certified, but they are not required to be certified in charter schools. Brown also says Louisiana is the only state with no code of ethics out of the 10 states they surveyed. Louisiana also does not have a way to sanction the licenses of teachers accused of mistreating students but not convicted of a crime.
Click here to report a typo. Please include the headline.
Click here to subscribe to our WAFB 9 News daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.
Copyright 2024 WAFB. All rights reserved.
OpenAI's controversial Sora is finally launching today. Will it truly disrupt Hollywood?
Canadian premier threatens to cut off energy imports to US if Trump imposes tariff on country
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25782636/247422_ChatGPT_anniversary_CVirginia.jpg "Inside the launch — and future — of ChatGPT")
Inside the launch — and future — of ChatGPT
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25789444/1258459915.jpg "OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever says the way AI is built is about to change")
OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever says the way AI is built is about to change
U.S. Supreme Court will decide if oil industry may sue to block California's zero-emissions goal
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25546252/STK169_Mark_Zuckerburg_CVIRGINIA_D.jpg "Meta asks the US government to block OpenAI’s switch to a for-profit")
Meta asks the US government to block OpenAI’s switch to a for-profit
Conservative group debuts major ad buy in key senators' states as 'soft appeal' for Hegseth, Gabbard, Patel
Freddie Freeman's World Series walk-off grand slam baseball sells at auction for $1.56 million
