ATLANTA (CN) — A Georgia federal judge tossed out the Peach State’s political maps on Thursday, ruling that congressional and state legislative districts must be redrawn before the 2024 election so that they no longer dilute the power of Black voters.
In a sprawling 516-page order deciding the outcome of three separate cases related to the redistricting issue, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ruled that congressional and legislative maps drawn by Republican lawmakers after the 2020 census violate the federal Voting Rights Act.
Jones wrote that the Black voters and civil rights organizations challenging the redistricting demonstrated there was a “lack of equal openness in Georgia’s election system” because of the maps impacting 10 Senate districts, 11 House districts and five Congressional districts.
“The Court commends Georgia for the great strides that it has made to increase the political opportunities of Black voters in the 58 years since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” Jones wrote. “Despite these great gains, the court determines that in certain areas of the State, the political process is not equally open to Black voters.”
The judge permanently barred state officials from using the maps in any future election. The state is ordered to enact new plans that comply with the Voting Rights Act by Dec. 8.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp issued a proclamation on Thursday calling for the legislature to convene for a special session on Nov. 29 to draw new maps.
The decision, the outcome of an eight-day bench trial in September, calls for the creation of five new Black-majority districts in the state House, two new Black-majority districts in the state Senate, and one additional Black-majority congressional district.
The new districts will be in the metro Atlanta area, which has seen explosive population growth in the last decade.
The groups challenging the maps have argued that although the state largely has Black residents to thank for its growth, Black voters have not received corresponding state or congressional political representation.
Jones agreed, ruling that Black population growth has not been reflected in the number of majority-Black congressional and legislative districts.
According to the 2020 census, Georgia’s total population increased by more than a million people between 2010 and 2020. Approximately 78% of the state’s total population growth was concentrated in the Atlanta metro area.
While Georgia’s white population decreased by about 51,000 people, the state’s Black population increased by 484,000 people since 2010.
“In the past decade, all of Georgia’s population growth was attributable to the minority population, however, the number of majority-Black congressional and legislative districts remained the same,” Jones pointed out.
The 2020 redistricting cycle was the first in which Georgia was not required to seek pre-clearance from the Department of Justice under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act before adopting new political maps.
The pre-clearance provision forced nine states, including Georgia, to get federal approval of their new political maps to ensure that changes would not negatively impact the voting power of minority racial groups. The U.S. Supreme Court struck the provision down as unconstitutional in its 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision.
Georgia's plans enacted in 2021 were used in the 2022 elections. Jones allowed the challenged maps to go into effect after ruling that it was too close to the elections to make changes.
An attorney representing the voters and organizations behind the challenge celebrated Thursday's ruling in a statement.
“This ruling is a victory for Black voters in Georgia, and for anyone who believes voting should be fair,” said Sophia Lin Lakin, an attorney who also serves as director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project. “The court’s ruling is a vital step in ensuring that Black Georgians can participate in the political process on equal terms.”
The case is one of many playing out across Southern states in which Republicans are defending congressional maps that judges have deemed discriminatory.
Courts in Alabama and Florida have ruled that voting maps in those states diluted the power of Black voters. The U.S. Supreme Court in June issued a 5-4 decision finding that race could play a role in redistricting, siding with civil rights groups in the challenge to Alabama’s congressional map.
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