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BATON ROUGE, La. — Today, a group of individual voters and of voting rights organizations filed an emergency motion to block Governor Jeff Landry and Secretary of State Nancy Landry’s suspension of the state’s congressional primary election after voting has already begun statewide. Governor Landry’s move opens the way for the State Legislature to redraw Louisiana’s congressional map to undermine Black political representation. Plaintiffs are the League of Women Voters of Louisiana, Louisiana State Conference of the NAACP, Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, and three individual voters. They are represented by the Legal Defense Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU of Louisiana.
The executive order comes on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court’s devastating decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which decimated federal protections for voters of color and struck down Louisiana’s congressional map that allowed Black voters the opportunity to freely elect candidates of their choice.
Today’s lawsuit argues that the governor’s executive order is beyond the scope of the Governor’s authority under Louisiana law and improperly usurps the U.S. Supreme Court’s authority to decide how its ruling should apply in this year’s midterm election.
Louisiana’s emergency statutes on suspending elections do not authorize the suspension of an ongoing election under these circumstances. Furthermore, the executive order sows chaos into an already-confusing election and puts at risk the votes of the many people who have already cast absentee ballots.
Plaintiffs and counsel released the following joint statement:
“Emergency powers are not a blank check to rewrite election rules after voting has begun, nor do they authorize the Governor to cancel votes that have already been cast to suit his political purposes. The Governor’s order is sparking chaos and is an illegal effort to erase the legally cast votes and disenfranchise thousands of people across the state. This is a shameful attempt to weaponize the Court’s recent decision at the expense of Black voters and manipulate an ongoing election. Governor Landry and Secretary Landry must serve the people and obey the law. Any last-minute effort to alter election procedures or enact discriminatory maps must be stopped.”
You can find the filing online here: https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/05/2026.05.1-Petition-for-TRO_FINAL.pdf
