Louisiana’s reapportionment saga rumbles on, now with the politics of electoral succession mixed in.
Last week, after the U.S. Supreme Court the previous month had ruled a district court that originally at the behest of special interests had ruled invalid the state’s latest congressional reapportionment had moved too fast to impose an alternative, a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel drew up a calendar for state action on the matter. It said the state had to come up with a new map by Jan. 15, although the “district court will also have discretion to grant limited additional time if requested,” or else then a redraw would fall to that court.
This creates an interesting political timeline. Jan. 8 will turn over a new Legislature and install Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry as governor. An extraordinary session would be required, since the regular session won’t convene until mid-March. There’s general agreement that the new batch of elected officials should handle the matter, as they will have to deal with the aftermath of anything that happens as a result of any actions, or inaction, taken.
But the Constitution says the objects of a special session must be proclaimed at least seven days in advance. That means that Landry who may proclaim this, or the new presiding officers of each chamber who can call such sessions by majority petition of each house’s members, would have to do so on their inauguration days, and even then it would convene on the day of the deadline. Given the complexity of the matter and even taking rules shortcuts to expedite matters, it would take at least a couple of more days to finish the task. Perhaps a week really would do the issue justice to consider all alternatives and to complete the likely very robust debate.
Better would be to have a running start, with the organizational session on Jan. 8 and then a special session set for Jan. 9-15. This would require cooperation from Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards or current legislators and their leaders.
As with any matter requiring nonpartisan statesmanship, count Edwards out. If the state has learned nothing else about him in eight years, it’s that his pettiness and vindictiveness will prevent this. He has been trying to force a two majority-minority district solution onto the legislative majority that prefers to adhere more closely to traditional reapportionment criteria which produced a map with only one M/M district out of six – and which overrode his veto to accomplish this – with which the court found fault. By delaying the process as much as he can through noncooperation, he would increase the chances that the court would intervene to impose a two M/M result that vastly increases his party’s chances of winning an additional seat.
So, it’s up to current legislators. A petition should start circulating immediately instructing outgoing Republicans House Speaker Clay Schexnayder and Senate Pres. Page Cortez to issue a call for a special session for Jan. 9-15 (which the petition can specify and its reapportionment object). With Republicans holding supermajorities in each chamber, getting to simple majorities in each before Christmas shouldn’t be a problem.
Democrats don’t want this, because Republicans can use this map-drawing to define better, and more in the spirit of the Constitution that treats people as individuals with rights rather than in groups assumed have certain rights courtesy of their assigned group membership, the law as it relates to selecting elected representatives of the people. Democrats simply want to ram through two M/M districts for their own political advantage, and anything but that they will take to court which almost certainly will cause another election cycle come and go with the current single M/M district in place.
Even as dozens of legislators will depart from service, for some as a final act they need to back this strategy to maximize the opportunity for Louisiana to have a system of national representation shaped not by special interests, but by the people’s wishes.
No comments:
Post a Comment