WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal from South Carolina Republicans who are defending a congressional district that a lower court ruledwas unanimously found to be a racial gerrymander.
The state’s 2022 congressional map, which was used in last year’s midterm election, moved tens of thousands of Black voters out of the state’s congressional district that covers part of Charleston County. The seat is currently held by Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican.
While centered in South Carolina, the Supreme Court’s decision could wind up having implications for how lawmakers draw congressional boundaries across the nation.
Republican lawmakers claimed the lower court’s decision to strike the map amounted to a “thinly reasoned order that presumes bad faith.” Instead, the lawmakers say, the lower court should have applied a presumption of good faith – that the moves were about shifting the political landscape of the district, not its racial makeup.
But the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund and the ACLU told the Supreme Court this year that the new map was designed with a discriminatory purpose. The lower court, those group claimed, “correctly found that mapmakers adopted a racial target…and achieved it by unnecessarily moving tens of thousands of Black voters and departing from traditional districting principles.”
The case is Alexander v. NAACP and it will likely be argued this fall.
A divided Supreme Court in 2019 essentially got out of the business of deciding partisan gerrymander lawsuits. But parties may still file suits over racial gerrymanders, alleging minority voters are having their power diluted.
The Supreme Court is already considering a major redistricting case raising similar questions. The justices heard arguments in October about an Alabama congressional map that includes one district out of seven with a majority of Black voters – even though African Americans make up 27% of the state’s population.
