United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit

____________ FILED October 25, 2023 No. 22-30320 Lyle W. Cayce ____________ Clerk

Ronald Chisom; Marie Bookman, also known as Governor; Urban League of Louisiana,

Plaintiffs—Appellees,

United States of America; Bernette J. Johnson,

Intervenor Plaintiffs—Appellees,

versus

State of Louisiana, ex rel. Jeff Landry, Attorney General,

Defendant—Appellant. ______________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana USDC No. 2:86-CV-4075 ______________________________

Before Wiener, Stewart, and Engelhardt, Circuit Judges.

Jacques L. Wiener, Jr., Circuit Judge:

Defendant-Appellant State of Louisiana, ex rel. Jeff Landry (“the State”), seeks to dissolve a consent decree that pertains to the method of selecting justices for the Louisiana Supreme Court. The State attempts to Case: 22-30320 Document: 00516943715 Page: 2 Date Filed: 10/25/2023

No. 22-30320

dissolve the consent judgment under the first and third clauses of Rule 60(b)(5) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The State contends that the judgment has been satisfied, released, or discharged because the State has substantially complied with the decree for more than thirty years and the decree was intended to terminate at a defined milestone. The State further contends that it is no longer equitable to enforce the consent judgment prospectively because of widespread malapportionment in Louisiana’s supreme court election districts. The district court denied the State’s motion to dissolve, holding that the State had failed to meet the evidentiary burdens associated with the first and third clauses of Rule 60(b)(5). For the following reasons, we AFFIRM. I. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS This case arises from the complex and controversial history concerning Black voter dilution in the state of Louisiana. On September 19, 1986, Ronald Chisom, Marie Bookman, Walter Willard, Marc Morial, Henry Dillon, III, and the Louisiana Voter Registration/Education Crusade filed a class action against the State of Louisiana and various state officials in their official capacities. Those plaintiffs challenged the method of selecting Louisiana Supreme Court justices, alleging that the former First Supreme Court District violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 52 U.S.C. § 10301 (“the VRA”), by diluting Black votes in Louisiana. 1 At the time, the

_____________________ 1 See Allen v. Milligan, 143 S. Ct. 1487, 1507 (2023) (“Section 2 prohibits States from imposing any standard, practice, or procedure ... in a manner which results in a denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen . . . to vote on account of race or color . . . [w]hat

2 Case: 22-30320 Document: 00516943715 Page: 3 Date Filed: 10/25/2023

No. 22-30320

First Supreme Court District was a multi-parish, m