Dems face uphill battle in challenge to Georgia Congressional map under new SCOTUS rules

Then-President Joe Biden put Georgia at the center of the national voting-rights fight in 2021 when he branded the state’s Republican-backed election overhaul "Jim Crow in the 21st century." Now, five years later, a separate Georgia voting-rights battle involving allegations of racial discrimination is garnering national attention as it plays out in federal court.

This time, the dispute centers on the state’s redrawn Congressional and state maps redrawn in 2021, with challengers facing a significantly tougher burden of proof following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v.

Callais.

The latest development came when the 11th U.S.

Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a lower court judgment striking down Georgia’s 2021 maps and returned the case to U.S.

District Judge Steve Jones.

The appeals court instructed Jones to reconsider the challenge under the new framework established in Callais, which raised the bar for plaintiffs alleging racial discrimination in redistricting.

Under that standard, evidence that a map weakened Black voters’ electoral influence is not enough by itself.

Plaintiffs must present evidence supporting a "strong inference" of intentional racial discrimination and distinguish the effects of race from those of partisan politics.

SUPREME COURT RULES ON KEY VOTING RIGHTS ACT RULE AS REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS WAGE REDISTRICTING WAR That distinction is especially important in Georgia, where Black voters overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates, creating significant overlap between race and partisan affiliation.

That overlap could make it more difficult for the challengers to prove that race, rather than political advantage, drove the district lines.

Black voters and voting-rights organizations filed three lawsuits challenging the maps between December 2021 and January 2022, arguing that the districts diluted Black voting power in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Jones ruled for the challengers in 2023 and ordered Georgia to create additional majority-Black districts , including one Congressional district, two state Senate districts and five state House districts.

Georgia subsequently enacted replacement maps that satisfied Jones’ order while preserving the Republican Party’s political advantage elsewhere.