Georgia Republicans want to redraw the state's congressional districts to create a new court-ordered Black majority district while maintaining the current 9-5 Republican congressional majority. The proposal released Friday shows they are again targeting Democratic U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath's district for wholesale transformation.
In an October ruling, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ordered the legislature to draw five additional Black-majority districts in the House and two additional Black-majority districts in the Senate to accommodate increases in Georgia’s Black population in the last decade. On Friday, Republicans said their new maps honor Jones’ ruling.
Elected officials and others held a community meeting of about 100 people at the Elaine Lucas Senior Center in Macon to discuss the special session of the Georgia General Assembly beginning this week.
Georgia Senate Republicans are proposing a new map that would create two new Black-majority districts in the the General Assembly's upper chamber. The new map comes after a federal judge said current congressional, state Senate and state House maps illegally dilute Black votes.
A federal appeals court ruling last week is the latest sign in a shifting national landscape limiting the ability of minority voters to challenge voting laws on claims of racial discrimination.
Lawmakers will convene on Wednesday to re-draw Georgia's voting districts after federal Judge Steve Jones said that the current maps "dilute Black voting power."
As a federal judge has ordered Georgia to draw Black majorities in one additional congressional district, two additional state Senate districts, and five additional state House districts, white Democrats could be in peril in some cases as Republicans seek to comply with the court order and preserve as many of their own seats as possible.
This week on Georgia in Play, host Leah Fleming looks at Georgia's impending redistricting. Plus, conversations with Savannah Mayor Van Johnson and Hidden Brain's Shankar Vedantam. We'll also look at a church's medical debt forgiveness ministry, the new Michelin Guide to Atlanta, and top bookstores around the state.
The case has been widely watched, not just because it could produce an additional Democratic House seat, but because the Fifth Circuit's actions are seen as a challenge to the high court's authority.
Another challenge to Georgia’s political maps is set to go to trial after the state was unable to persuade a three-judge panel that the pair of cases should be tossed out.
Democrats could gain a seat in the U.S. House and multiple seats in Georgia's Legislature if a judge rules Republicans drew maps illegally weakening Black voters' power.
