Federal Court Orders Georgia to Redraw State Legislative District Maps

A federal court today ruled that Georgia’s state legislative district maps discriminate against Black voters and must be redrawn.  

The decision follows an eight-day trial in September in Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity v. Raffensperger, a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Georgia, and WilmerHale on behalf of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the Sixth District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and several individual Georgia voters. 

The groups successfully argued that the maps deny Black Georgians an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect candidates of choice, in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

New district maps are drawn as part of a once-in-a-decade redistricting process triggered by the decennial census. They determine the allocation of political power, representation, and access to resources at every level of government for the next 10 years. The 2020 census showed tremendous growth in the state’s Black population over the last decade. However, lawmakers enacted legislative maps with district lines that denied the state’s undeniable demographic shift, diluting Black Georgians’ voting strength, especially in Metro Atlanta, where the Black population had increased by hundreds of thousands. 

During the trial, plaintiffs presented the court with abundant evidence that spotlighted a pattern of stark, racially-polarized voting in the state and how Georgia’s long history of racial discrimination continues to reverberate today. 

The court ruled that the state’s failure to draw two new Black opportunity districts in the state senate and 5 new Black opportunity districts in the state house violated the Voting Rights Act and ordered the general assembly to draw new maps no later than Dec. 8, 2023. 

In its ruling, the court held that while Georgia has made progress since 1965, “the evidence before this Court shows that Georgia has not reached the point where the political process has equal openness and equal opportunity for everyone.”The court’s order therefore was issued “to ensure that Georgia continues to move toward equal openness and equal opportunity for everyone to participate in the electoral system.”