ATLANTA (CN) — A federal judge ruled Thursday that Georgia's Republican-led General Assembly "fully complied" with his orders to create an additional political district with a majority of Black voters.
Last year, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones found the state's 2021 political district map violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting Black voting power in certain areas of the state, and in October the judge ordered state legislators to draw an additional, majority-Black congressional district in the west-metro Atlanta area.
The new district lines, which keep Republicans in control of the state's legislature and congressional delegation, were signed into law on Dec. 8 by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.
While the state gained additional districts with a majority of Black voters under the redrawn maps, it changed little in partisan representation, Judge Jones noted.
"Here, the committee and floor debate transcripts make clear that the General Assembly created the 2023 Remedial Congressional Plan in a manner that politically protected the majority party (i.e., the Republican Party) as much as possible," he wrote in Thursday's order.
"However, redistricting decisions by a legislative body with an eye toward securing partisan advantage does not alone violate Section 2" of the Voting Rights Act, the judge added.
The plaintiffs in the case, including Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, a historically Black fraternity active in civil rights causes, argued that the map redraw failed to follow the judge's order; rather, it reshuffled Black voters within areas where their voting power was stronger, instead of creating a new district and a demonstrable opportunity to elect their preferred candidates.
However Jones rejected the assumption that his Oct. 26 order confined the state to making changes in the same congressional districts where the judge found the plaintiffs proved vote dilution.
The court merely provided "geographic guidance" by specifying the west-metro Atlanta area, the judge said; it can't tell the General Assembly to act "only within the enumerated districts" to create the additional majority-Black district.
Under its 2023 Remedial Congressional Plan, the General Assembly drew an additional majority-Black Congressional district in western metro Atlanta, Congressional District 6, located in portions of Cobb, Douglas and Fulton Counties.
The new district "falls squarely within the geographic area of state specified by the court’s order," the Barack Obama-appointed judge wrote.
The plaintiffs also argued that the new district divides dismantled a "minority opportunity district" predominately of nonwhite and Democratic voters, despite the judge's instructions that the state could not eliminate “minority opportunity districts elsewhere in the plan.”
In fact, the plaintiffs argued, the state legislature created a new federal voting rights violation by cutting the district's 57.81% minority voting population in half.
But during the hearing and in his order, Jones emphasized that the complaint concerned only Black voters, and that there was no evidence presented during trial regarding a coalition of minority voters.
"This court has made no finding that Black voters in Georgia politically join with another minority group or groups and that white voters vote as a bloc to defeat the candidate of choice of that minority coalition. Therefore, the court’s reference to 'minority opportunity districts' in the Oct. 26, 2023 order could not refer to any potential coalition district," Jones wrote.
Jones added that the plaintiffs' new objection to the remedial districting plan "demands development of significant new evidence" and would be "more appropriately addressed in a separate proceeding."
While the decision is likely to be appealed, attorneys representing Georgia's secretary of state previously emphasized the need for the maps to be put in place by Jan. 16 in order to meet deadlines for the upcoming election calendar.
“We believe that these maps continue to violate … the Voting Rights Act and dilute the voting strength of Black voters,” said Rahul Garabadu, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. “But no matter what, our fight to ensure fair voting practices in Georgia will continue.”
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