Federal judge orders new election district lines for DeSoto Police Jury

MANSFIELD, La. – A federal lawsuit questioning the DeSoto Police Jury’s use of race in drawing its election district lines appears to be nearing an end following a court order to have the boundaries redrawn.

U.S. District Judge Jerry Edwards Jr. on Thursday signed a consent order whereby he’ll appoint a special master to draw a new map to represent the 11 voting districts. The Police Jury can no longer use its existing map in future elections, he said.

The order comes just over two weeks after a vote by the Police Jury to work with the lawsuit’s plaintiffs toward a resolution and stop the litigation that’s been ongoing for three years.

Police jurors want to “resolve this as quickly and affordably as possible and did consent to a motion to move forward and get this resolved,” parish Administrator Michael Norton said on Friday.

A group of DeSoto Parish voters filed suit in May 2023, accusing the governing body of using race to gerrymander its new election lines that were redrawn after the 2020 Census. The lawsuit was put on hold last fall at the plaintiffs’ request while waiting on a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in the Louisiana v. Callais case.

The high court ruled in April that the state’s congressional redistricting map was unconstitutional because race was used as the primary factor in drawing the district boundaries. The plaintiffs contend the same is true of the Police Jury's lines. 

The plaintiffs called DeSoto’s district map a “textbook example of gerrymandering,” pointing to the Police Jury’s failure to adjust lines to accommodate growth in the north end of the parish. Instead, the map retained the five majority Black districts in Mansfield despite significant population losses there.

The plaintiffs and Police Jury were facing an October trial date, but Edwards has upset that and all other court deadlines.

Norton said the Police Jury has agreed to bear the cost of the special master. How much that will be and who it will be are unknown for now.

“It will probably be someone agreed upon by both parties. It probably will not be the ones currently used,” Norton said.

So far, the Police Jury has spent north of $340,000 in defense of the lawsuit. Costs were expected to rise significantly higher if the case went to trial.

One issue that’s still in contention is the plaintiffs’ request that the Police Jury pay its attorneys’ fees and costs.

“The jury is not in agreement with that,” Norton said.

Edwards said in the consent order that those claims will be taken up at a later time.

Both sides have 7 days from Thursday to submit a proposed schedule for the appointment of the special master and the timing of a plan for submission to the court.

A new map will need to be approved at the latest by early next year since qualifying for the Police Jury’s fall elections is about a year from now.

“Whatever map is decided on will have to be adopted by the current jury,” Norton said.