WASHINGTON – In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court has sided with South Carolina’s GOP, maintaining that the new congressional district maps are not influenced by race. This decision reversed a lower court ruling that the South Carolina GOP used race as a factor when creating the new Congressional District 1 map.
Gerrymandering is a common practice all across the country. While population density typically divides voting districts, voter affiliation can also influence the divisions. The practice is commonly used as a way to diminish the impact of a certain party. Oftentimes, lawmakers reconsider congressional districts in the years following the federal census. South Carolina, like many states, used data collected in 2020 to redraw two of their seven congressional districts. In the case of Alexander v. South Carolina Conference of the NAACP, plaintiffs argued that the state’s redistricting map unfairly divided Black voters.
While the Supreme Court deliberated the case, the lower court, which had previously sided with the NAACP, allowed the new map to be used in this year’s election. Even though Thursday’s ruling may not have an immediate impact in South Carolina, it does establish a precedent for future gerrymandering cases.
The Ruling
With the court hosting a conservative majority, six of the nine Justices signed off on the decision. Justice Samuel Alito delivered the opinion with a concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas. They asserted, “The District Court’s finding that race predominated in the design of District 1 in the Enacted Plan was clearly erroneous.” They continue by stating that the lower court didn’t separate race and politics in their decision.
In South Carolina, 78% of Black registered voters identify as Democrats. Left-leaning Black voters are a common theme across the country. Reconfiguring southern congressional maps to favor one party over the other can often appear racially motivated.
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In his opinion, Alito wrote, “That is because partisan and racial gerrymanders ‘are capable of yielding similar oddities in a district’s boundaries’ when there is a high correlation between race and partisan preference.”
Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, released a dissenting opinion. They maintain that despite the practice being distasteful, gerrymandering based on political affiliation does not violate the Constitution. However, if racial data influenced the maps, it would violate the Equal Protection Clause.
“The proper response to this case is not to throw up novel roadblocks enabling South Carolina to continue dividing citizens along racial lines,” Kagan stated. “It is to respect the plausible—no, the more than plausible—findings of the District Court that the State engaged in race-based districting.”
National Response
United for Democracy is a coalition that raises awareness of the impacts of Supreme Court rulings. Campaign Director Stasha Rhodes released the following statement regarding Thursday’s decision.
“Today the MAGA-controlled Supreme Court rubber-stamped right-wing politicians’ strategy of stripping away Black communities’ voting rights and ability to choose and hold their elected officials accountable. That this decision comes just after news of Justice Alito’s ‘Stop the Steal’ sympathies came to light is egregious but not surprising from this broken and corrupt Supreme Court.
This is another relentless power grab aimed at suppressing the voices of Black South Carolinians and making it incredibly difficult for Americans to challenge unconstitutional MAGA racial gerrymanders in future cases.
Our Supreme Court should serve as protector of our democracy, but instead we have a MAGA supermajority – three of whom appointed by former President Trump — intent on taking a hatchet to our rights, our freedoms, and our democracy.
We are at a breaking point and Congress cannot ignore it. It’s time they commit to fixing the Supreme Court to restore equal representation and return power to the people before it’s too late.”
United for Democracy Campaign Director Stasha Rhodes
Representative James Clyburn, a Congressman from South Carolina took to social media to air out his grievances. “Today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP is further affirmation that this Court has chosen to disenfranchise Black voters and rob us of our fundamental access to the ballot box,” he wrote.
Clyburn believes the court is attempting to revert the country to days of heavy oppression and division. “Look no further than this decision and Justice Thomas’ disturbing critique of Brown v. Board of Education in his solo concurrence.”
Janai Nelson, President of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, also weighed in on Thursday’s ruling. “The highest court in our land greenlit racial discrimination in South Carolina’s redistricting process denied Black voters the right to be free from the race-based sorting and sent a message that facts, process, and precedent will not protect the Black vote.”
She continued, “Today the voices of Black South Carolinians were muted, and if we are not careful the next set of votes denied could be those in your state.”
