(By T.A. DeFeo, The Center Square) A federal trial over Georgia’s state legislative district maps is set to kick off next week in Atlanta.
In 2021, several Georgia residents and groups, including the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and the Sixth District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, filed suit against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. They argued that the state’s legislative maps drafted in 2021 violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In the lawsuit, they alleged state lawmakers enacted maps with district lines that ignored the state’s demographic shift, including a 16% increase in the state’s Black population and sought to “systematically minimize the political power of Black Georgians in violation of federal law.” Lawmakers “drew only a small handful of new Black-majority districts, mostly in areas that were already electing Black-preferred candidates.”
“When districts are drawn to minimize the voices of black voters in Georgia, it damages our democracy,” Rahul Garabadu, senior voting rights staff attorney, ACLU of Georgia, said in a statement. “We filed this lawsuit on behalf of our clients to ensure that state legislative districts are drawn so that black voters have an equal opportunity to elect candidates of choice. We look forward to presenting our case at trial next week.”
Spokespeople for Raffensperger, Gov. Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr, all Republicans, did not respond to a request for comment. Last month, a federal judge denied the state’s motion for a summary judgment in the lawsuit.
