BATON ROUGE - Legislators in the Senate & Governmental Affairs Committee approved a map with one majority minority district after listening to more than nine hours of testimony against the measure. 

People from across the state spoke to senators during the hearing, which started at 7 p.m. and wrapped up at 4:26 a.m. 

WATCH THE HEARING HERE

The meeting was focused on two maps, one proposed by State Sen. Jay Morris, R-Monroe, and another by State Sen. Ed Price, D-Gonzales. 

The majority of speakers at Tuesday's hearing focused on an amended SB407, Price's map, which contained two majority-Democrat districts. Price said his "opportunity districts" were made with party, not race, in mind. 

For five hours, people spoke in support of Price's map, saying any other option would further disenfranchise Black voters. 

A vote was held just before 12:30 a.m. Wednesday for Price's map. Three Democratic members voted "yes," and four Republicans voted "no," meaning the map did not pass committee. 

Senators moved on to discussing Morris' SB121, which was highly criticized by State Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, for only having one majority Democratic district. The map combined parts of Orleans and East Baton Rouge parishes into one district.

SB121 is one of Morris' two proposed maps that feature a majority Black district. The other had zero. 

State Sen. Regina Barrow offered an amended SB121, which separated New Orleans and Baton Rouge and offered two majority democrat districts. The map was denied in a vote at 2:37 a.m. and public testimony on Morris' map began. 

People at the meeting testified for nearly two hours, pleading to the four Republican members of the committee to decline SB121. 

Just before 4:30 a.m., Morris' amended map was approved.

The first meeting where Morris' maps were introduced turned fiery when State Sen. Gary Carter Jr., D-New Orleans, alleged that the maps were racist. 

"He suggests that he's not racist. I suggest we take a look at his work," Carter said during Friday's meeting.

On Monday, Carter apologized to Morris. 

"My questions seem like personal ad hominem, personal attacks on you. I apologize, I did not intend that at all. That's part of me losing my temper during the course of the hearing," Carter said. 

Carter stepped down from the committee and was replaced by Duplessis on Tuesday.

Carter wasn't the only one speaking to his fellow legislators about what happened Friday. Morris took to the Senate floor to accept Carter's apology and ask for one himself. Morris said he was misquoted by Democratic party leaders, who said he told Louisiana Democratic Party Executive Director Dadrius Lanus to "shut up, boy," as Morris walked by him. 

"If I said those things, I would get down on my knees right now and beg for your forgiveness, but I did not say them," Morris said, adding that he's gotten more than 150 death threats since the allegations were made. 

In a review of WBRZ's footage from Friday, the word "boy" was not heard during the encounter between Morris and Lanus. 

Lanus said that while he believes the death threats are uncalled for, the senator can cry him a river. 

"The audio was clear. There were eyeball witnesses that saw and heard what he said," Lanus told WBRZ. 

Following that meeting, security at the Capitol has been increased, and occupancy restrictions have been enforced for the meeting room and the hallway outside of it. 

Legislators are scrambling to pass new maps following the Supreme Court's decision that Louisiana's congressional maps were unconstitutional and racially gerrymandered. The court suspended the customary 32-day waiting period for an opinion to become official and denied a petition for a recall of the judgment, making its decision final. 

Governor Jeff Landry issued an executive order to suspend voting for the U.S. House primaries, which happened after mail-in ballots had already been cast and two days before early voting. 

Early voters in Louisiana have been told that their votes for the U.S. House do not count, but all of the other races on the ballot are still going as scheduled. 

U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields and 10 U.S. House candidates have joined a lawsuit filed by community activist Eugene Collins and U.S. House candidate Lindsay Garcia. It's one of five lawsuits that have been filed since the ruling. They argue that the race should not have been suspended, as voting had already started. 

Despite the confusion, East Baton Rouge Parish had the highest early voting turnout in the state, with more than 294,000 voters casting ballots ahead of election day on May 16. 

Now, the map will be sent to the Senate floor for a vote. The map would then pass through the same process in the House of Representatives. If legislators in the House approve it as-is, it will go to the governor's desk.