“A federal judge will draw a new Louisiana congressional map with a second Black district after the Legislature failed to draw new boundaries of its own in a Special Session that ended Saturday without the passage of any bill,” the Lafayette Daily Advertiser reports.

FiveThirtyEight: “As has been true for decades, this national congressional map is biased toward Republicans. Assuming Louisiana’s congressional map is reinstated upon appeal, the 2022 House map will feature 208 congressional districts with a FiveThirtyEight partisan lean of R+5 or redder, compared with 187 districts that have a FiveThirtyEight partisan lean of D+5 or bluer. Throw in the highly competitive seats, and 225 districts would be more Republican than the country as a whole, while 210 would be more Democratic.”

“In other words, if the national House popular vote were perfectly tied, Republicans would theoretically win 225 seats and Democrats would win 210 (ignoring, for now, other factors like candidate quality).”

“By this measure, however, Democrats are actually in a slightly better position than they were before, having added a handful of Democratic-leaning seats.”

“A federal judge has ordered Louisiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature, which overpowered the state’s Democratic governor to enact a congressional map favorable to the GOP, to redraw the map to add a second majority-Black district,” the Baton Rouge Advocate reports.

With redistricting complete, The Economist finds America’s congressional maps are a bit fairer than a decade ago, but even fewer seats in Congress will be competitive.

“The Florida Supreme Court refused on Thursday to consider a challenge to a new map of the state’s 28 congressional districts approved by the Republican State Legislature, paving the way for November elections to be based on districts that a lower court said diluted the voting power of Black residents, in violation of the State Constitution,” the New York Times reports.

“The court’s two-sentence denial said it was premature for the justices to consider a suit seeking to overturn the congressional map because the case had not yet wound its way through the state court system, which could take months or years.”

Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “The book is nearly closed on the decennial redistricting process. And by at least one metric, the new House landscape is very much like the old landscape: It tilts toward Republicans.”

“However, this GOP bias is not nearly as strong as it was a decade ago.”

“Early redistricting wins for Democrats are collapsing across the map, deepening the party’s fears of a rout in November’s midterm elections,” Axios reports.

“A state court formally approved New York’s new congressional map late Friday, ratifying a slate of House districts drawn by a neutral expert that could pave the way for Democratic losses this fall and force some of the party’s most prominent incumbents to face off in primary matches,” the New York Times reports.

“The map, approved just before a midnight deadline set by Justice Patrick F. McAllister of State Supreme Court in Steuben County, effectively unwinds an attempted Democratic gerrymander, creates a raft of new swing seats across the state, and scrambles some carefully laid lines that have long determined centers of power in New York City.”

HuffPost: Mondaire Jones to avoid primary against House Democrats’ campaign chief.

“For the 2020 census, all states were not counted equally well for population numbers used to allocate political representation and federal funding over the next decade, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released Thursday,” NPR reports.

“A follow-up survey the bureau conducted to measure the national tally’s accuracy found significant net undercount rates in six states: Arkansas (5.04%), Florida (3.48%), Illinois (1.97%), Mississippi (4.11%), Tennessee (4.78%) and Texas (1.92%).”

“It also uncovered significant net overcount rates in eight states — Delaware (5.45%), Hawaii (6.79%), Massachusetts (2.24%), Minnesota (3.84%), New York (3.44%), Ohio (1.49%), Rhode Island (5.05%) and Utah (2.59%).”

“The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld a Republican-drawn congressional map that divides racially diverse Wyandotte County for the first time in 40 years, finding the boundary lines don’t violate the state constitution,” the Kansas City Star reports.

“The decision means voters in the northern half of the Democratic stronghold county will likely be represented by a Republican in Congress, while Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids will face a more challenging re-election campaign in the newly redrawn 3rd District, which now includes more conservative-leaning rural areas.”

The new congressional district map for New York proposed by a court-appointed special master leans into competitiveness, according to the Cook Political Report.

As opposed to the struck 22D to 4R gerrymander, this map is more like 15D to 5R and includes six highly-competitive seats.

Here’s the new map.

This draft map is devastating for Democrats — particularly if 2022 is a red wave election.

“Opposition to a new congressional map crumbled, and the Missouri Senate approved new boundaries for the state’s eight U.S. House districts, sending the map to Gov. Mike Parson (R),” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

“The new map will likely lead to the status quo in Missouri’s U.S. House delegation: six Republicans and two Democrats, shoring up Rep. Ann Wagner’s St. Louis County-based 2nd Congressional District for the GOP.”

A Florida district court has ruled that Florida’s newly-drawn congressional districts drawn by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) violate the state constitution, the AP reports.

CNN: “Judge J. Layne Smith, a DeSantis appointee to the 2nd Circuit Court of Florida, said during a hearing that he intended to issue an order granting an injunction that would prevent the map from going into effect. Smith said the map violates the state constitution ‘because it diminishes African Americans’ ability to elect the representative of their choice.'”

“For the next two weeks, one of the most powerful people in politics is a professor whose professional life has been devoted to studying demographics, political behavior, and mapping,” Bloomberg reports.

“Jonathan Cervas has until May 20 to redraw New York’s congressional and state Senate district lines, translating complex data into maps that will pass constitutional muster and stand for a decade. The stakes are high, and for a little added pressure, this is the first time he’s in charge as the court-appointed special master rather than working as an assistant or consultant.”

“With the balance of the House of Representatives at stake, national Democrats made an 11th-hour appeal to a federal court on Monday to intervene in New York’s heated redistricting dispute, hoping to reinstate House maps thrown out by the state’s highest court last week,” the New York Times reports.

“In a 17-page complaint, they argued that there simply was not enough time to implement the order from the State Court of Appeals for new district lines and still comply with a longstanding federal court order meant to protect the rights of Americans casting ballots from overseas.