Supreme Court docket guidelines for GOP in South Carolina redistricting case

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court docket on Thursday dominated that Republicans in South Carolina didn’t unlawfully take into account race once they drew a congressional district in a method that eliminated hundreds of Black voters, making it more durable for civil rights plaintiffs to carry racial gerrymandering claims.

The court docket, divided 6-3 on ideological traces with conservatives within the majority, mentioned civil rights group had not performed sufficient to indicate that legislators had been centered on race in drawing the Charleston-area district presently represented by Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican.

Whereas the Supreme Court docket was contemplating the case, far more slowly than anticipated, the decrease court docket that had invalidated the map mentioned it might be used for this 12 months’s election.

The justices’ ruling will due to this fact don’t have any rapid impression in South Carolina, nevertheless it units the foundations of the street for future redistricting efforts, making it simpler for maps to be drawn that disfavor Black voters so long as the map-makers can present they’re utilizing race as a proxy for political affiliation.

In doing so, the court docket sided with Republican state officers who mentioned their sole aim was to extend the Republican tilt within the district.

Because of the ruling, Mace’s district is not going to need to be redrawn, delivering a blow to Democrats who hope to safe a extra favorable map. Litigation on a separate declare introduced by plaintiffs towards the map might proceed.

Writing for almost all, conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote that “no direct proof” helps the decrease court docket’s discovering that race was a key consideration when the map was drawn.

“The circumstantial proof falls far in need of exhibiting that race, not partisan preferences, drove the districting course of,” he added.

In dissent, liberal Justice Elena Kagan wrote that almost all had “stacked the deck” towards the challengers.

“What a message to ship to state legislators and mapmakers about racial gerrymandering,” she added.

The Supreme Court docket was reviewing a January 2023 decrease court docket ruling that mentioned race was of predominant concern when one of many state’s seven districts was drawn. Republicans led by South Carolina Senate President Thomas Alexander appealed the choice.

Republicans redrew the boundaries after the 2020 census to strengthen GOP management of what had grow to be a aggressive district.

Democrat Joe Cunningham gained the seat in 2018 and narrowly misplaced to Mace in 2020. Two years later, with a brand new map in place, Mace gained by a wider margin.

The roughly 30,000 Black voters who had been moved out of the district had been positioned into the district held by Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, who’s Black. It’s the solely one of many seven congressional districts that’s held by Democrats.

The NAACP Authorized Protection and Instructional Fund and different civil rights teams alleged not solely that Republicans unlawfully thought-about race once they drew the maps however that in addition they diluted the facility of Black voters in doing so.

The claims had been introduced beneath the Structure’s 14th Modification, which requires that the legislation applies equally to everybody. The case arose beneath a unique authorized principle from the most important ruling this 12 months by which civil rights advocates efficiently challenged Republican-drawn maps in Alabama beneath the Voting Rights Act.