Georgia Sued Over New Congressional Map
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, a lawsuit was filed challenging Georgia’s newly passed congressional map soon after it was signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp (R). The complaint, filed on behalf of individual voters, argues that the new map violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) because it dilutes the voting strength of Georgians of color and denies these voters an equal chance to participate in the political process. A lawsuit against the new legislative maps was filed earlier this evening.
The lawsuit alleges that the Republican-controlled Legislature diluted Black voting strength across Georgia by choosing to “‘pack’ some Black voters in the Atlanta metropolitan area and ‘crack’ other Black voters among rural-reaching, predominantly white districts.” The suit points out that all of Georgia’s population growth over the last decade came from communities of color, but despite these demographics “the General Assembly has ensured that the growth of the state’s Black population will not translate to increased political influence at the federal level.” The complaint argues that the Legislature should have created an additional majority-Black district in the Atlanta metropolitan area under the VRA because Black Georgians in that area vote cohesively as a bloc and “are sufficiently numerous and geographically compact to constitute a majority of eligible voters in an additional congressional district, without reducing the number of minority-opportunity districts already included in the enacted map.” The plaintiffs ask the court to block the current map and order the creation of a new map that complies with the VRA and allows Black voters to elect their candidate of choice in an additional district.