Demand Progress

Last week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said the congressional map enacted by Louisiana Republicans is discriminatory and likely violates the federal Voting Rights Act.¹

This is an important victory, but trouble could be looming on this very same crucial issue in the Supreme Court. The NAACP has accused GOP lawmakers in South Carolina of redrawing Congressional maps to confine the democratic voting power of Black residents into a single district — using race as the main determining factor for the new district lines.²

Now, Politico reports that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority will likely override a lower court’s initial decision and uphold the GOP’s racial gerrymandering.³ If the Supreme Court rules that way, the GOP will continue racist gerrymandering every chance they get.

Sign the petition: Demand that Congress ban racist gerrymandering across the country.

The lawsuit that the Fifth Circuit ruled on argues that Louisiana’s congressional map dilutes the voting power of Black Louisianans and violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by failing to provide Black voters an equal opportunity to elect their candidates of choice in a second Louisiana congressional district.⁴

But if the Supreme Court upholds racist gerrymandering in South Carolina, it will open the floodgates to even more suppressive, discriminatory, and undemocratic redistricting nationwide WITHOUT the backstop of federal courts.

GOP gerrymandering is extremely beneficial to Republican elected officials and extremely detrimental to the people. GOP lawmakers across the country, including in Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina, are engaging in partisan gerrymandering to silence certain voters, especially in minority communities, and give Republicans an unfair and undemocratic advantage in elections.

We cannot allow the GOP to silence voters, and we surely cannot allow the Supreme Court to legitimize it.

Add your name: Tell Congress to ban racist gerrymandering.

Sources:

1. NAACP Legal Defense Fund, “Federal Court of Appeals Affirms Louisiana’s Congressional Map is Discriminatory,” November 11, 2023.
2. Politico, “Supreme Court likely to side with South Carolina GOP in racial gerrymandering case,” October 11, 2023.
3. Ibid.
4. NAACP Legal Defense Fund, “Federal Court of Appeals Affirms Louisiana’s Congressional Map is Discriminatory,” November 11, 2023.