It’s a rare time when we’re going to be rooting against Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, whom we’re fans of, but today is one of those rare times. Because today, Murrill is tasked with defending the lousy congressional map the state legislature was buffaloed into drawing early last year as Obama judge Shelly Dick of the Middle District of Louisiana threatened to draw her own redistricting plan.

This is the map that knocked Garret Graves out of Congress and put Cleo Fields in, and with a near 50-50 House of Representatives it should be a major priority to claw back a fifth Republican House seat as soon as possible.

The Supremes can fix that by throwing out this map.

 The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday will hear arguments on whether the congressional district map Louisiana used for the 2024 elections should be used again.

State lawmakers last year adopted a map that created a second majority-Black district that stretches from Baton Rouge to Shreveport and taps into the Lafayette and Alexandria metro areas. A group of non-African Americans challenged the map, saying race was too great a factor in its adoption.

The state says politics was a major factor. Lawmakers wanted to preserve seats for House Speaker Mike Johnson, then minority leader Steve Scalise and northeastern Louisiana lawmaker Julia Letlow, who serves on the powerful Appropriations Committee.

The decision sacrificed the seat of Republican Rep. Garret Graves, who didn’t back Gov. Jeff Landry in the 2023 governor’s race.

A federal court tossed out the 2024 map, but the U.S. Supreme Court told Louisiana to use it anyway until it could take up the case. That happens on Monday.

“Inclusive representation is not just an ideal, it is the foundation of a healthy democracy. When every voice is heard, regardless of race, our government becomes stronger, more just, and more accountable to the people it serves, and in a state where black communities have shaped the culture, the economy, and the history. Louisiana’s Congressional districts must reflect that reality and anything less would be a betrayal of democracy itself,” Alanah Odoms, Executive Director of ACLU of Louisiana, said.

About one-third of Louisiana’s population is Black, but all but one of its six U.S. House members were white until the new map was used last November. Then state-Sen. Cleo Fields won the seat, giving Louisiana two Black House members, along with Troy Carter of New Orleans.

We thought this was an interesting quote from the state’s brief, and it almost comes off like Murrill wouldn’t mind losing the case…

The state’s brief to the U.S. Supreme Court said it seemed that the 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson that let Louisiana use race as a factor in setting boundaries had turned into a mandate.

“Happily, Louisiana today is nothing like Plessy’s Louisiana. Yet, the cruel irony is that Louisiana today is not just permitted (as the Plessy majority believed) to sort its citizens based on the color of their skin—it is required to do so, at least to some unspecified degree,” lawyers for the state wrote.

And then there was Murrill’s quick video clip outside of the Supreme Court building in which she made it sound even more like she wouldn’t mind losing the case…

Attorney General Liz Murrill in Washington D.C. this morning as they consider whether the congressional district map Louisiana used for the 2024 elections should be used again. https://t.co/Nho2jslVEB pic.twitter.com/vtdEHZIBPH

— WBRZ News (@WBRZ) March 24, 2025

What is the best possible result? The best thing that could happen, though it won’t in this case because the plaintiffs, who are suing the state to get the map thrown out and thus throw it back to the Louisiana legislature which would redraw a 5-1 map and force Fields to run for re-election in a majority-white, majority-Republican district, aren’t asking for it, is that the Supremes would invalidate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Section 2 is the part which establishes the necessity of having racially-drawn districts in order to give “minority” demographic groups – most significantly black people – proportional representation in legislatures.

The theory behind that is black people can’t get elected in white districts. But if that was once true it certainly isn’t anymore.

Did you know that Ilhan Omar’s congressional district in Minneapolis is some 70 percent white? That would seem impossible, but it’s true. What gives a lot more of a lie to the idea that we need affirmative action for black politicians by drawing them safe DEI districts is how many black Republicans get elected from majority-white constituencies.

Like Daniel Cameron, who was Kentucky’s Attorney General and came pretty close to knocking off Andy Beshear as governor there two years ago. Cameron is the favorite to be the GOP nominee for the Senate in 2026 when Mitch McConnell finally goes away, and if he wins the primary he’ll probably win the general election.

And that would make Cameron the second black Republican senator after Tim Scott, who hails from…South Carolina. If ever there was a “racist” state supposedly exemplifying why you’d need Section 2 it’s South Carolina, and yet Tim Scott will be in the Senate for as long as he wants to be.

Then you have other statewide elected officials like Lt. Governor Winsome Sears in Virginia and former Lt. Governor Mark Robinson in North Carolina, who won the GOP nominee for governor last year but ran a poor race and lost in the general. And a whole host of black Republicans in Congress who represent majority-white districts: Byron Donalds in Florida (likely the next governor of the Sunshine State), Burgess Owens in Utah, John James in Michigan, Wesley Hunt in Texas. Not long ago Will Hurd in Texas and Mia Love in Utah (she just died of brain cancer over the weekend).

In fact, it’s not even remarkable to see a black Republican win in a majority-white district or even statewide. Not anymore.

So why do we need to pack black votes into ghetto districts? Well, Republicans generally like doing it as much as black Democrats do, because done correctly this is how you can cement a GOP majority in a state like Louisiana at the expense of white Democrats while at the same time maximizing black Democrat power.

Louisiana’s state legislature maps are examples of this being perfectly done. There are almost no white Democrats left; in fact, in 10 years we wouldn’t be surprised to see more black Republicans in the state legislature than white Democrats, though that dam has yet to break.

But we don’t expect the Court to get rid of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. They can invalidate the current Louisiana congressional map by other means, and a lot of people think they will. If that happens, there will be a special session, Louisiana’s legislature will draw a 5-1 map that likely puts Graves back in a position to win his congressional seat and the 2026 congressional cycle will probably restore a 5-1 split to the state’s House delegation.

We’ll see. We should know something by this fall.

Shelly Dick is the only reason Fields has a congressional seat. It’s funny that Louisiana’s Attorney General is put in the posture of defending her position while trashing her at the Supreme Court at the same time.