Effort to protect voting rights in Louisiana law falters
A Louisiana legislative committee blocked a bill Wednesday that would have established a state Voting Rights Act to strengthen protections against gerrymandering and voter suppression.
Senate Bill 365, sponsored by Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, failed to advance from the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee, whose Republican majority defeated the measure in a 4-3 vote.
The proposal sought to create state-level standards modeled after the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. It would have established a state-level commission to prevent legislators and local governments from enacting laws or drawing political districts in ways that intentionally diluted the voting power of racial minorities and any other protected classes of people.
Similar oversight had long been the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Justice until conservative rulings from the Supreme Court and Trump administration policy significantly weakened federal civil rights authority.
https://lailluminator.com/2026/04/09/louisiana-voting-rights-bill-falters/