A federal district court struck down the congressional and legislative maps that Georgia Republicans enacted after the 2020 census, ruling on Thursday that they illegally discriminated against Black voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act.
The court gave the Republican-led legislature until Dec. 8 to redraw one congressional district and seven legislative districts in order to empower Black voters, prompting GOP Gov. Brian Kemp to call a special legislative session beginning Nov. 29. However, like their counterparts in Alabama, Georgia Republicans may try to craft maps that still do not comply with the VRA and fight to preserve them on appeal, or at least drag out the process.
To remedy Georgia’s VRA violation, the court ordered the creation of a new majority-Black congressional district in Atlanta's western suburbs. During the court litigation, one set of plaintiffs put forth just such a map, which you can see alongside the GOP's gerrymander in the illustration at the top of this story. (Click here for a larger image, and see here for an interactive version). The plaintiffs’ map would dismantle the solidly red 6th District, which is currently represented by GOP Rep. Rich McCormick; in its place would be an entirely new 6th due west of Atlanta that would be just over 50% Black and heavily Democratic.
The court noted that, in the decade prior to the 2020 census, minorities accounted for all of state’s population growth, with Black Georgians responsible for almost half that total. The white population, by contrast, actually fell. Nonetheless, Republicans refused to increase the number of Black-majority districts at either the congressional or legislative levels.
The Atlanta metropolitan area in particular has seen explosive growth among Black, Latino, and Asian American residents. Despite the region’s skyrocketing diversity, the GOP's new congressional map failed to create a new district in the western Atlanta area where Black voters could elect their preferred candidate, who would almost certainly be a Black Democrat.
Instead, Republicans gerrymandered the 6th District to flip it from blue to red. The old 6th had been a majority-white but highly educated suburban district directly north of Atlanta that Rep. Lucy McBath, a Black Democrat, had flipped in 2018 and held in 2020. The previous district had backed Joe Biden 55-44 in 2020, but the GOP's new gerrymander radically reconfigured it into a seat that Donald Trump would have won 57-42.
Campaign Action
The GOP’s new map prompted McBath to run next door in the safely Democratic 7th District, where she defeated Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux in the primary and continues to serve in Congress today. McCormick then easily flipped the revised 6th last year.
The court also ordered the creation of several new majority-Black legislative districts: two state Senate districts in the southern Atlanta metro area; three state House districts in the southern and western suburbs of Atlanta; and two state House seats near the city of Macon further south. Revising all of these districts will also entail redrawing many surrounding districts.
Following the 2022 elections, Republicans held a 9-5 majority in the congressional delegation, a 33-23 edge in the state Senate, and a 102-78 majority in the state House. While new Republican-drawn maps would likely remain too gerrymandered elsewhere in the state for Democrats to win majorities anytime soon, Democrats could flip several seats across these three maps following the creation of new VRA-mandated districts.
Prior to last year's elections, the same federal court determined that the plaintiffs were "substantially likely to succeed" in their claims, but it put the case on hold until after 2022 because the Supreme Court had put a similar ruling out of Alabama on hold while the GOP there appealed. However, the Supreme Court subsequently issued a landmark ruling that upheld a key part of the VRA and required Alabama to create a new congressional district where Black voters will have the opportunity to elect their candidate of choice. The new Georgia ruling cites the Supreme Court’s Alabama decision extensively.
However, it's far from guaranteed that Georgia will have new districts in time for 2024. Republicans will almost certainly appeal to the conservative-dominated 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Any ruling there could in turn be appealed to the Supreme Court, which could result in lengthy delays.
It’s also not clear yet when candidates need to turn in paperwork to run for office: State election authorities recently told Daily Kos Elections they won't set the filing deadline for candidates looking to run in the May 21 primary until the end of this year. (In the past, the deadline has usually come in the first half of March.)
However, just as they did in Alabama and Louisiana last year, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has frequently let Republicans get away with using illegal maps for at least one election cycle by dubiously claiming it's too close to the next election to implement any changes without causing too much disruption. Delays from inevitable GOP appeals could give the justices a pretext to do so again in Georgia and postpone any new maps until at least 2026 even if the plaintiffs ultimately prevail.
Nonetheless, if this ruling survives on appeal, Black voters will have the chance to more fully participate in the political process thanks to the creation of new districts that will no longer dilute their voices.
This story has been updated to reflect that Gov. Brian Kemp has called a special session to draw new maps. It has also been edited for clarity.