Louisiana High Court Races Rigged Against Blacks, NAACP Says (1)

Louisiana’s method for electing justices to its state Supreme Court is rigged against black voters, the state chapter of the NAACP said in a lawsuit.

“Although the voting-age population of Louisiana is approximately 30% African American,” the state “has had only two African-American justices in its history,” the complaint said.

The civil rights group blames the makeup of the state’s seven Supreme Court electoral districts—each used to elect a single Supreme Court justice—for a lack of diversity on the high court bench.

“African Americans comprise a majority in only one of the seven Supreme Court electoral districts,” the July 23 ...