A federal judge Thursday ordered Georgia to redraw its racially discriminatory congressional and state legislative maps to create more majority-Black districts, giving Democrats a solid chance for a House seat pickup that could determine who controls the narrowly divided chamber after the 2024 elections.
The 516-page order by U.S. District Judge Steve Jones said the state legislature has until Dec. 8 to draw new maps with a majority-Black House district in the Atlanta area and seven majority-Black districts for the state legislature.
Georgia has "made great strides since 1965 towards equality in voting," the judge wrote, referring to the year the Voting Rights Act was enacted to ensure Black voter power was not diluted through racially gerrymandered congressional and state legislative maps. "However, the evidence before this Court shows that Georgia has not reached the point where the political process has equal openness and equal opportunity for everyone," he said.
The Voting Rights Act was weakened in 2013 by the Supreme Court, which took away the "pre-clearance" requirement that states with a history of race discrimination undergo federal oversight before enacting new maps.
Once the maps are drawn, litigants can still sue under the Voting Rights Act to demand the drawing of districts that are not designed to dilute minority voting power. But the process can be lengthy and arduous, and the contested maps – as was the case in Georgia – remain in place during litigation.
The ruling was a major boost for Democrats, who need to flip just five seats to take control of the House – a factor that could have major implications for certification of the 2024 presidential election as well.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican elected to the post Wednesday, was a central figure in the effort to deny President Joe Biden the certification of his 2020 election. Since House members are sworn in Jan. 3 – ahead of the Jan. 6, 2025, certification and the Jan. 20, 2025, presidential inauguration – it may matter a great deal which party controls the speakership during what was once a pro-forma certification of America's presidential elections.
Jones said in his ruling that Black voters in Georgia have "suffered significant harm" because of the racially gerrymandered maps. Therefore, he wrote, "those citizens are entitled to vote as soon as possible for their representatives under a lawful apportionment plan." New maps must be made up "forthwith," Jones wrote, giving the GOP-controlled state legislature and Republican governor until Dec. 8 to remedy the situation.
If Georgia lawmakers are "unable or unwilling" to meet that deadline, "the Court will proceed to draw or adopt remedial maps," he warned.
The state is expected to appeal, but in a similar case in Alabama, the high court ruled for voting rights activists.
Georgia, once a reliably red state, has become a new political battleground and a critical piece of Democrats' efforts to win presidential elections.
President Joe Biden became the first Democrat to win the state since 1996, turning out Black voters in increasingly blue suburban Atlanta to score a narrow victory for Georgia's 16 electoral votes. And while the state has a Republican governor and legislature, both its senators – Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff – are Democrats.
The Supreme Court was roundly criticized for its 2013 Shelby County v. Holder ruling, which voting rights advocates said eviscerated the Voting Rights Act by making it hard for people to challenge racially gerrymandered maps. One of the problems, they argued, is that suspect maps would stay in place unless and until litigants went through lengthy and expensive court cases to redo them.
"I applaud the district court's decision ordering Georgia to draw maps compliant with the Voting Rights Act," Georgia state Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, a Democrat, said in a statement responding to the ruling. "We are eager to help pass fairer maps that comply with federal law."
But those legal efforts are starting to pay off for voting rights groups now, and the high court has not stood in the way.
In June, the Supreme Court ordered Alabama to create a second majority-Black district. And when the GOP-run state failed to draw a map that complied with the high court's order, a clearly irritated federal judicial panel took the task away from them and gave it to a special master.
A similar case is going on in Louisiana, which was also ordered to draw another majority-Black district. However, due to appeals the Supreme Court earlier this month declined to get involved in, it is unclear if a new district will be drawn there before the 2024 elections.
In Florida, arguments are scheduled next week for an appeal of a state judge's ruling that the congressional lines there violate the state constitutional rules against diluting the Black vote. The map, pushed by 2024 presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, erased a district, held by Black Democratic Rep. Al Lawson, that was 46% Black in population.
