DeSoto Parish Courthouse

DeSoto Parish Courthouse

MANSFIELD, La. -- The DeSoto Parish Police Jury on Monday will discuss how or whether to proceed with its defense of a lawsuit filed by a group of voters alleging the 11 election district lines were gerrymandered when redrawn three years ago.

An executive session on the lawsuit – David B. Means et al v. DeSoto Parish Police Jury – is on the meeting agenda. No binding action can be taken during the closed-door discussions; however, if police jurors decide action needs to be taken then they must do so in open session afterwards.

So far, the Police Jury has spent $293,726 of taxpayer money in defense of the lawsuit.

Means and 13 other DeSoto Parish voters scattered across the parish sued the Police Jury in federal court in May 2023, alleging the new lines – created after the 2000 census – were drawn based on race. They wanted to stop the fall 2023 election, but a federal judge allowed it to continue while still leaving the door open to the possibility of a trial.

In September, the plaintiffs asked to put their lawsuit on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Louisiana v. Callais. That ruling centered on Louisiana’s congressional redistricting map, which the court recently found unconstitutional because race was used as the primary factor in drawing the maps.

On May 7, the plaintiffs filed a notice with the U.S. District Court in Shreveport asking the court to lift the stay and set a scheduling conference or a schedule for further proceedings. Several settlement offers have been proposed, which the Police Jury rejected.

The plaintiffs believe the U.S. Supreme Court ruling trickles down to DeSoto Parish. They contend when police jurors drew the new lines they did not take into account the vast growth on the north end of the parish.

Instead, the plan retained five majority-Black districts that are anchored in Mansfield, which has lost considerable population. Four of the Black police jurors live within a few miles of each other.

The demographer who drew the lines with the police jurors’ input admitted the districts on the north end of the parish were overpopulated in contrast to the districts on the south end, where population has declined. But he said his plan was to ensure minority representation on the Police Jury did not decline.

DeSoto’s overall population based on the 2020 census was 26,812, with 57% white and 37.19% Black. In July 2025, the census showed a population increase to 27,381, with 62.2% white and 33.8% Black. Other races round out the percentages.

Mansfield’s numbers also have gone down even more, from 4,714 to 4,610.

District Attorney Charles Adams, who serves as the Police Jury’s legal counsel, advised police jurors during the redistricting process in 2023 that creating a map protecting incumbents and preventing minority retrogression were insufficient reasons to justify moving population out of districts based on race. He stressed the importance of realizing the parish’s population was changing and districts needed to shift northward more than what was reflected in the map that was eventually adopted on a 7 to 4 vote.

The Police Jury hired private legal counsel to represent it in the lawsuit.