Voting rights groups argued before a federal appeals court that Georgia lawmakers still haven’t fully addressed the dilution of Black voters’ power when redrawing the state’s congressional and legislative districts.
If the court agrees with this argument, they could order that district lines be redrawn for the remainder of the decade. This could lead to more districts electing candidates preferred by Black voters, who are often Democrats.
The groups contend that while lawmakers created additional majority-Black districts, it wasn’t enough to resolve the illegal vote dilution in areas that had been proven in previous court hearings.
For example, for state Senate and House maps, the issue is centered in the southern Atlanta suburbs. For the congressional map, the issue is north and west-central of Atlanta. However, according to ABC News, lawmakers shifted Black voters from other areas in the metro to create new majority-Black districts.
“Moving to a different part of Atlanta to create opportunity districts for Black voters is not enough,” said attorney Ari Savitzky, representing the group challenging the state legislative maps from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Meanwhile, Georgia state attorneys are defending the current maps, saying that they complied with a previous court order to redraw the maps. They argue that the opponents cannot demand that new districts be located in specific places. Stephen Petrany, Georgia’s Solicitor General, argued that the groups are really trying to help Democrats win more seats, and the court shouldn’t allow them to use this lawsuit to achieve that goal.
A judge on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals stated that any decision on redrawing the maps will have to wait until after a ruling in another lawsuit. This lawsuit was filed by Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, seeking to overturn the original ruling by Federal Judge Steve Jones, who declared the 2021 maps illegal under the 1964 Voting Rights Act.
The opponents are facing a major challenge. Judge Jones ruled in 2023 after a trial that previous lines were drawn to illegally dilute the votes of Black voters. However, he accepted new maps drawn by lawmakers in a special session, arguing that they remedied the illegality. For the Appeals Court to overturn the current maps, the judges must conclude that Judge Jones abused his discretion.
Despite creating additional majority-Black districts, the new maps still reinforce the Republican advantage. In Georgia, where GOP candidates in competitive races only win about 53-54% of statewide votes, Republicans currently hold 64% of the congressional seats (9/14). In the state Senate, they hold 59% of the seats (33/56). The state House is more evenly balanced, with Republicans holding 100/180 seats (56%).
If the current maps are not overturned, Georgia will likely use them until the state elections in 2030.
