Georgia lawmakers will open a special session Wednesday as majority Republicans move to minimize their losses while also trying to increase the number of Black-majority districts to comply with a federal court order.
“(Republican incumbents are) either going to end up in districts highly likely to elect a Democrat or in a district with another Republican incumbent,” said UGA political science prof Charles Bullock
(Reuters) -A federal judge on Thursday ordered Georgia lawmakers to draw a new congressional map for the 2024 election, ruling that the current Republican-backed plan illegally diluted Black votes in violation of the Voting Rights Act. U.S. District Steve Jones gave legislators until Dec. 8 to enact a new map that includes an additional district with a Black majority or near-majority, which would likely flip a Republican seat to Democrats. Republicans won nine of the state's 14 U.S. House of Representative districts in the 2022 elections, which took place under the map that Jones invalidated.
A federal judge ruled Thursday that some of Georgia's congressional, state Senate and state House districts were drawn in a racially discriminatory manner, ordering the state to draw an additional Black-majority congressional district. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, in a 516-page order, also ordered the state to draw two new Black-majority districts in Georgia's 56-member state Senate and five new Black-majority districts in its 180-member state House. Jones’ ruling follows an eight-day September trial in which the plaintiffs argued that Black voters are still fighting opposition from white voters and need federal help to get a fair shot, while the state argued court intervention on behalf of Black voters wasn’t needed.