Governor, AG Attempt to Flip Script On Cleo Fields District They Created

FLIPPING THE SCRIPT 

It is amazing to see Governor Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill on national television attempting to take credit for the possible overturn of Cleo Fields’ racially gerrymandered Congressional district!  

In case anyone has forgotten, it was Governor Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill who WROTE Cleo Fields’ racially gerrymandered District and who bullied the legislature into passing it in January 2024.

It was the Governor and the Attorney General who falsely told the legislature that they were required to pass the Cleo Fields’ Congressional district because Louisiana was under court order to create a second black district. That was not true. 

There was no such court order.

It was Jeff Landry and Liz Murrill who engineered the ouster of Garret Graves as our Congressman and paved the way for a racially gerrymandered district going from Baton Rouge to Shreveport to give Cleo Fields a guaranteed seat in Congress. 

It was Jeff Landry who engineered the appointment of Cleo Fields, a liberal Democrat, as chairman of the Senate and Government Affairs committee in charge of reapportionment, despite a 2/3rds’ Republican majority in the State Senate.

It was Jeff Landry and Liz Murrill who bullied Louisiana legislators into passing the Cleo Fields’ district even though they knew Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson of Louisiana had only a three-vote majority, thereby endangering Republican control of the House.

It was Jeff Landry and Liz Murrill who went into federal court in March 2024 to defend the gerrymandered Cleo Fields District. And it was Jeff Landry and Liz Murrill who continued to defend that plan for 20 months until September of this year all the way to the US Supreme Court!

It was only in September, after President Trump‘s people took them to the woodshed, that they flipped positions and decided that the Cleo

Fields’ district was a bad idea. 

Even today, their position is weak. They argue that section 2 of the Voting Rights Act should be struck down, but if it is not struck down, then the Fields’ district is fine. 

Congratulations to attorney Paul Hurd and the plaintiffs in Callais v. Secretary of State Nancy Landry for the courage and constitutionally-correct arguments that they have made against the Cleo Fields’ district since they filed suit against it on January 31, 2024. They have fought it every step of the way at great personal and political expense.

Congratulations too to Secretary of State Nancy Landry who has well represented the interests of the people of Louisiana in calling out the Cleo Fields’ district for what it is, a racially gerrymandered district which violates the Equal Protection clause of the 14th amendment to the Constitution.  She stood against a powerful governor and spoke  truth.