BATON ROUGE — A coalition of Black lawmakers went to court Monday hoping to convince a judge that Louisiana's attorney general was obligated to defend a congressional district map that led to the state electing two Democrats to the U.S. House last year. The judge refused.

Lawmakers last year approved an election map that created two majority-Black districts among the state's six. The one-third balance generally mirrors the racial makeup of the state.

Attorney General Liz Murrill had initially defended the map while asking for more clarification on how states should handle redistricting.  Now, she is arguing against race-based redistricting. That position could lead to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that address the use of race when setting out districts. The justices will hold arguments next week.

Murrill changed her approach after President Donald Trump asked Republican-led states to redraw maps to boost the number of GOP seats in the House. Texas and Missouri have done so, while California is considering a plan to add Democratic seats.

Nationally, Democrats need to take three seats next year to win control of the U.S. House. Through the years, the president's party typically loses seats in a midterm election. 

Members of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus sued Murrill last month, saying that because laws are presumed to be constitutional, she had an obligation to defend the map lawmakers approved in a 2024 special session, or to withdraw from the case.

Murrill says her position allows her a certain level of discretion and that the lawmakers have no special standing to force her to take on any "ministerial" role. If they did, she says, they would upset the balance of power among the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of government.

The group of lawmakers said in court Monday that if the Legislature is not able to fight for the laws it passes, then who can? 

Murrill said late Monday that the judge had ruled in her favor. The decision was not immediately available online.

"This was the proper result," she said in a statement. "Our focus is on arguments in the United States Supreme Court and addressing the flaws in the court’s jurisprudence that deprives the Lesgislature of their constitutional duty over drawing maps.”

Whether Louisiana lawmakers considered race first or politics first while drawing the map has already gone through the justice system once. After a federal judge tossed out an initial map, lawmakers subsequently adopted a map that preserved the seats of two powerful lawmakers — House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise — at the expense of a congressman who didn't endorse Jeff Landry for governor — Garret Graves.

The map left Louisiana with two majority-Black districts among the six seats in Congress. The state is about one-third Black and now its congressional seats are, too.

The U.S. Supreme Court left the map in place for the 2024 election and is set to hear new arguments Oct. 15 on how to move forward. The map used last year was remarkably similar to one struck down in 1993. Demographers say it is difficult to draw a second majority-Black district in Louisiana because of population patterns.