NAACP Sues Over Georgia’s New Legislative and Congressional Maps
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Tonight, another lawsuit was filed against Georgia’s new legislative and congressional maps signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp (R) earlier this evening. This lawsuit, filed on behalf of Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda and Galeo Latino Community Development Fund, argues that the new state House, Senate and congressional maps are racial gerrymanders that violate the 14th Amendment, as well as racially-diluted maps that violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The lawsuit asks the court to declare the challenged districts invalid and order the creation of new maps that give voters of color adequate opportunities to elect candidates of their choice.
The plaintiffs argue that challenged state House, Senate and congressional districts are racial gerrymanders because race was used as the predominant factor in redistricting without any compelling state interest. They allege that “racial considerations were the controlling rationale by the Controlling Party and its map drawers behind these plans and traditional redistricting principles were subordinated” and resulted in intentional racial discrimination in violation of the 14th Amendment. The plaintiffs also argue that the Republican map drawers diluted the voting strength of voters of color across Georgia, “particularly in areas that witnessed significant growth of communities of color in the past decade, packing or cracking communities of color into districts” in violation of the VRA. The complaint details districts where “reasonably compact majority-minority districts, either by one race/ethnicity or a combination of racial/ethnic groups of color, could have been drawn” for the court to consider.