Louisiana Advances Plan To Eliminate Majority-Black U.S. House District After Court Ruling

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Republican senators in Louisiana have advanced a plan to eliminate one of two majority-Black, Democratic-held congressional seats. The Senate committee vote early Wednesday follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the state's House map as an illegal racial gerrymander. Committee members heard hours of testimony from Black residents and Democrats opposed to the move. Republicans chose not to target both Democratic seats. The Supreme Court's recent ruling weakening Voting Rights Act protections has prompted similar redistricting efforts in Southern states like Tennessee and Alabama. Those efforts are part of a broader national redistricting battle that has involved about one-third of the states.