Jeff handled the question of this redistricting special session called by John Bel Edwards this morning quite well, but I’ll throw in some extras if I might.

His piece has most of the key details of what’s happening, but the tl;dnr version of it goes like this:

1. Louisiana passed a congressional redistricting map for the 2020’s which looks pretty similar to the one for the 2010’s, in that it has five districts pretty certain to elect Republicans to congress and one which will surely elect a black Democrat.
2. Gov. John Bel Edwards threatened to veto it but didn’t, knowing that a bunch of leftist “civil rights” groups who demand that a Republican legislature carve out two sure-Democrat seats rather than one would sue. And they did.
3. A partisan Democrat Obama-appointed federal judge in Baton Rouge named Shelly Dick turned in a 150-page decision throwing out the congressional map which was basically the same map that had been constitutional for the last 10 years because she said that if a third of the state’s population is black then a third of the state’s congressional districts have to be majority-black.
4. A few minutes after Dick’s ruling came down, Edwards called a special session to begin June 16 demanding the Louisiana legislature convene to write up a new congressional map giving the Democrats a second district.
5. Edwards was scheduled to testify on his role in covering up the Ronald Greene killing by the Louisiana State Police on June 16. Schexnayder put out a statement saying that would have to be postponed because of the special session.
6. And a couple of days after that, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on Dick’s ruling, a good indication the Fifth Circuit is going to use her 150-page decision as kindling to light up the charcoal for the grill this weekend, maybe to do some Cajun sausage and burgers or even shish kabobs.

Which leads us to this…

Sadow says Schexnayder screwed up by rescinding the call for Edwards to testify. I agree with that but I’d go further.

What Schexnayder should have done was not only refuse to let Edwards off the hook but instead announce that on June 16 Edwards would be testifying in front of the Committee of the Whole in the House. So he’d be catching questions from all those conservative legislators who hate his guts and those black Democrats still furious about the Greene case.

And then let Edwards throw a fit about that.

Why Schexnayder wants to play a submissive role in front of Edwards when it’s his failure to run a state police force that doesn’t beat motorists to death on roadsides, at the same time Edwards appears to be colluding with partisan Democrat judges to pervert the process to steal a congressional seat, is beyond me. He ought to be playing hardball with this lame-duck, failed governor and building his own resume for the statewide office we all know he wants to run for.

Schexnayder should announce that on June 16 the House will gavel in and gavel out, and no action will be taken on the congressional map, period. Then he should reissue the demand that Edwards testify in front of the investigative panel on the Ronald Greene case for, say, June 23. It’s the least he can do to repair the mistakes he’s made this week.