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BATON ROUGE, La. — <\/span>Louisiana suspended its congressional primaries Thursday as early voting was about to get underway, while pressure mounted on Republican officials in other states to redraw their U.S. House maps in light of a Supreme Court ruling that significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act.<\/p>\n Early voting had been scheduled to begin Saturday for Louisiana’s May 16 primaries. But Republican Gov. Jeff Landry issued an executive order postponing the U.S. House primary in response to a ruling Wednesday by the court that struck down a majority Black congressional district.<\/p>\n \u201cAllowing elections to proceed under an unconstitutional map would undermine the integrity of our system and violate the rights of our voters,\u201d Landry stated. \u201cThis executive order ensures we uphold the rule of law while giving the Legislature the time it needs to pass a fair and lawful congressional map.\u201d<\/p>\n The Republican-controlled secretary of state’s office, which declared an electoral emergency allowing for Landry’s order, said it would post notices at early voting sites alerting the public about the suspended congressional primary. All other races on the ballot will proceed as scheduled. <\/p>\n The Supreme Court decision and Landry’s move triggered a flurry of follow-up legal action. On Thursday night, the three-judge federal appeals court panel that heard the initial case that was appealed to the high court issued a brief order suspending Louisiana’s House election until new maps are drawn \u2014 a move some legal experts said was premature. Marc Elias, a prominent Democratic election attorney, announced the filing of a lawsuit challenging Landry’s order.<\/p>\n The governor’s order postponed the congressional primary until either July 15 or a date to be set by the Legislature. The state’s Republican House and Senate leaders said they are prepared to pass new congressional voting districts \u2014 and set a new election date \u2014 before their regular session ends in a month.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump used his social media platform to praise Landry, who also is his special envoy to Greenland<\/a>, for moving quickly to revise the state’s congressional districts. He also urged Republicans in Tennessee to do likewise in response to the Supreme Court’s decision. <\/p>\n While civil rights activists denounced the potential for diminished minority representation<\/a> in Congress, top Republicans cited the Supreme Court’s decision as justification to spur an already intense national redistricting battle<\/a> among states before the November elections. <\/p>\n \u201cI think all states who have unconstitutional maps should look at that very carefully, and I think they should do it before the midterm,\u201d House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters in Washington.<\/p>\n The election suspension in Louisiana was denounced by some Democrats.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is going to cause mass confusion among voters — Democrats, Republicans, white, Black, everybody,\u201d said Louisiana state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents the New Orleans area. \u201cWhat they\u2019re effectively doing is changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game. It\u2019s rigging the system.\u201d<\/p>\n Delaying an election is unusual but not unprecedented.<\/p>\n During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, several states pushed back elections because of health concerns. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who led Louisiana at the time, postponed the state’s April 4 presidential primary three weeks before it was supposed to occur \u2014 then delayed it again until July 11.<\/p>\n Louisiana currently is represented in the U.S. House by four Republicans and two Democrats. A revised map could give Republicans a chance to pick up at least one more seat in the November midterms \u2014 adding to Republican gains elsewhere from redistricting. <\/p>\n Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But Trump last year urged Texas Republicans<\/a> to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. California Democrats reciprocated, and redistricting efforts soon cascaded across states. <\/p>\n On Wednesday, Florida lawmakers became the latest<\/a> to redraw U.S. House districts, adopting a new map backed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that could give the GOP a chance at winning several additional seats. <\/p>\n The Florida vote occurred just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority issued a ruling that significantly weakened minority protections under the federal Voting Rights Act. The court said Louisiana officials had relied too heavily on race when drawing a congressional district that is represented by Democrat Cleo Fields<\/a>. <\/p>\n Trump said he wants Tennessee to take up redistricting in response to the court’s ruling. The president posted on social media that he had spoken with the state’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, who he said would work hard for a new map that could help Republicans gain an additional seat. Democrats currently hold only one of the state’s nine House seats \u2014 a district centered in Memphis, which is majority Black.<\/p>\n Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican, said he is in conversations with the White House and others while reviewing the court’s decision. <\/p>\n After the 2020 census, Louisiana officials had drawn House voting district boundaries that maintained one Black majority district<\/a> and five mostly white districts, in a state with a population that is about one-third Black. A federal judge later struck down the map<\/a> for violating the Voting Rights Act. <\/p>\n The following year, the Supreme Court found<\/a> that Alabama had to create a second congressional district that would be favorable to Black voters.<\/p>\n Federal judges permanently barred Alabama from using a congressional map drawn by state lawmakers and ordered the use of a plan that added a second district with a substantial number of Black voters.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Alabama filed an emergency motion with the Supreme Court seeking an expedited review of its appeal. The state is seeking to lift the injunction blocking the use of the 2023 map drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature that did not include the new district.<\/p>\n