Lawsuit challenging congressional district’s boundaries is dropped

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A demand for the redrawing of Louisiana’s allegedly gerrymandered congressional 2nd District was filed in federal court in late November on behalf of three Baton Rouge residents.

Now, poof! That demand is gone.

Christopher L. Whittington, former chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party and the attorney who wrote the suit, said: “The clients and others interested in the litigation re-examined the case and made a decision not to pursue the matter at this time.”

The suit was dismissed at Whittington’s request before attorneys for the state could respond to the complaint in the court of U.S. District Judge Shelly D. Dick.

Whittington’s clients were Baton Rouge retirees Maytee Buckley, Leslie Parms and Parms’ wife, Yvonne Parms.

“The legal merit of the suit has never been questioned by the clients,” Whittington said. Other details related to that decision are “subject to the attorney-client privilege, for which I cannot comment.”

In early December, Whittington said the 2nd District, which stretches from east of New Orleans and along the Mississippi River to north Baton Rouge and Baker, was engineered by the Legislature in 2011 to ensure the state would have a black member of Congress.

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