TWO CHILDREN KILLED IN SHOOTING AT MINNEAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL 6A
N O L A.C O M
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T h u r s d ay, au g u s T 28, 2025
20 THEN & NOW KATRINA
YEARS
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La. wants part of Voting Rights Act overturned Attorney general argues race-based redistricting is unconstitutional
BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
RESILIENCE AND SCARS OF A REGION FOREVER CHANGED Two decades later, the story
impact is still visible. Pilings jut from
of Hurricane Katrina is one of
Lake Pontchartrain where docks once
resilience, and of stubborn scars.
stood. Empty lots, overgrown with
Neighborhoods have been rebuilt, families returned and the Superdome shines again as a symbol of recovery.
ä More before and after photos. PAGES 4-5A
Communities that many thought
grass, mark the places where homes and lives were lost. Twenty years on, our region carries both its progress and its wounds. In that balance lies
would never come back found ways
a quiet truth: The memory of loss
to endure, proving a strength that
persists, but so too does the spirit of
continues to define the New Orleans
a region that refused to be washed
metro area and state. But the storm’s
away.
TOP: Elmore Gibson, 83, is helped out of a boat that carried him through floodwaters to the Louisiana Superdome on Aug. 31, 2005. ABOVE: Saints super fan Joseph Rohaley, as ‘Saint Vader,’ makes his way into the Caesars Superdome for a preseason game.
STAFF PHOTOS By BRETT DUKE
Images by Times-Picayune photographers are part of the Louisiana State Museum’s “Living with Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond” exhibit, opening Friday at the Presbytère in New Orleans’ Jackson Square.
WASHINGTON — Louisiana is now urging the U.S. Supreme Court to rule a key section of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional, which would throw out the state’s congressional map that has two minority-majority districts. “The Constitution forbids sorting voters by race. And telling legislators drawing maps to think about race, but not think too much about race, is an untenable standard,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said after releasing Wednesday afternoon a 58page brief filed with the Supreme Court. Louisiana had previously defended the maps, saying they had created them under protest when a federal judge ruled a previous map with one minority district unconstitutional. But, after the Supreme Court asked for “The arguments on whether Constitution Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is forbids sorting constitutional, the state voters by race. changed direction. And telling “We have consistentlegislators ly argued that the U.S. drawing maps Supreme Court’s redistricting jurisprudence to think about needs to be drastically race, but not changed or overruled,” think too much Murrill said. “By reabout race, is quiring state legislaan untenable tures to draw maps that sort voters by race, it standard.” forces us to violate the LIZ MURRILL, federal Constitution.” The state’s brief de- Louisiana attorney general tails the position Louisiana will take Oct. 15 when state Solicitor General Benjamin Aguiñaga argues Louisiana v Callais before the nine justices of the high court. The brief contends that Senate Bill 8, which enacted the maps, only became law because of “unprecedented pressure by the courts to draw a second majority-minority district or else the courts would. And that is why our original briefing in this case defends SB 8 under the Court’s existing precedents.” “Whether race technically predominates or not,” the brief states, “…does not change the fact that the classification is fundamentally contrary to the Equal Protection Clause’s prohibitions.” The filing concluded by asking the high court to find “the intentional creation of a second majority-minority district in SB8 is unconstitutional.” If the Supreme Court accepts Louisiana’s argument, it would mean drastic changes to
ä See VOTING, page 7A
Missing boy killed by alligator attack, coroner says BY MISSY WILKINSON
lagoon, another quest has launched to determine where the blame should lie in what NOPD SuperThe day after a 12-day, multia- intendent Anne Kirkpatrick has gency search to find a missing au- deemed a “failure.” The New Orleans coroner detistic boy ended with the discovery of his body in a New Orleans East termined Bryan Vasquez, 12,
Staff writer
WEATHER HIGH 92 LOW 77 PAGE 8B
died from blunt force trauma and drowning sustained during an alligator attack. The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries was asked to eradicate “nuisance alligators” in the waterway near the 13000 block of Sevres Street, where the
child’s body was found, Kirkpatrick said at a Wednesday media briefing. New Orleans police confirmed that Bryan’s mother, Hilda
PROVIDED PHOTO
Bryan Vasquez, 12, disappeared ä See MISSING, page 7A from his home on Aug. 14.
Business ......................3D Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................8D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....4D-7D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
13TH yEAR, NO. 16