(The Center Square) — Louisiana House Republicans on Tuesday blocked a pair of Democratic-backed bills that would have redrawn judicial election districts in their favor in East Baton Rouge Parish.
The bills by Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, would not have added judges or changed court jurisdiction. But they would have reshaped the voter bases for future judicial elections for the East Baton Rouge Parish Family Court and the First Circuit Court of Appeal’s Second District.
Marcelle argued the maps are overdue for change, saying they have not been redrawn in decades and that Black voters remain underrepresented on the bench.
“I’m fed up, frankly, with these racists,” Marcelle told The Center Square. “It’s very hypocritical. The maps haven’t been redrawn in 30 years. There’s only one judge who’s African American.”
Republicans rejected the bills on a 5-5 vote.
House Bill 442 would have redrawn election sections for the East Baton Rouge Parish Family Court. The court has four judgeships, and under Marcelle’s proposal, two of those seats would have been placed in a heavily Democratic, majority-Black section of the parish. The proposal would likely have improved Democrats’ chances of holding or winning half of the court’s seats.
House Bill 443 dealt with the First Circuit Court of Appeal. The court has 12 judges, four of whom are elected from the Second District, which is East Baton Rouge Parish. Under current law, that district is split into two subdistricts, with one subdistrict electing three judges and the other electing one.
Marcelle’s bill would have changed that structure to a two-and-two split, with two judges elected from each section.
The bills surfaced as Republican lawmakers are advancing a separate congressional redistricting plan that would favor the GOP by reducing the likely number of Democratic congressional districts by one.
