- A federal court in South Carolina ruled Thursday that this year’s congressional elections will be held under current district boundaries.
- A court previously ruled the map unconstitutional because it allegedly weakened the political influence of black voters, but the looming deadline for absentee voting makes redrawing the map unfeasible. It was also decided that
- The lawsuit over the Palmetto State’s maps is primarily focused on the 1st District, which includes much of the coast and the Charleston area, and is currently represented by Republican Nancy Mace.
A federal court ruled Thursday that South Carolina’s legislative elections this year were already unconstitutional and discriminatory against black voters because time expired before polls closed and no ruling has been made on the matter. The court ruled that the trial would be carried out under the same map. supreme court.
“The primary process is rapidly approaching, an appeal to the Supreme Court is still pending, and no remedial plan is in place,” the three-judge panel of South Carolina federal judges wrote in its order. Therefore, ideals must yield to reality.”
South Carolina’s primary election is June 11th, and early voting begins May 28th. The deadline for overseas absentee voting is April 27, but it would be “clearly impractical” to change the map before then, the judges wrote.
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The case hinges on South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, currently held by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace. Last year, the same three-judge panel ruled from Charleston after finding that South Carolina had used race as a proxy for partisan affiliation in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Ordered South Carolina to redraw the area to Hilton Head Island. to the constitution.
When Mace first won the 2020 election, she defeated incumbent Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham, who two years earlier was the first Democrat to flip a House seat in South Carolina in 30 years, by 5,400 votes. It was defeated by less than 1 percentage point. In 2022, after redistricting based on the results of the 2020 census, Mace won reelection with a 14% margin.
FILE – Rep. Nancy Mace, RS.C., speaks at the Capitol in Washington, Oct. 11, 2023. A federal court has ruled that this year’s legislative elections in South Carolina will be held under a map that it has already ruled unconstitutional and discriminatory against black voters, pending the Supreme Court’s ruling as time runs out before the voting deadline. It was decided that the . The case hinges on South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, which Mace currently holds. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
After the Republican-led South Carolina Legislature redistricted the district, civil rights groups quickly filed a lawsuit accusing the state Legislature of choosing “probably the worst option of available maps” for black voters. , and claimed that the district had been made into a district to exclude black voters. A safer seat for Republicans.
Last year, a three-judge panel (the same one that issued Thursday’s order) ruled that South Carolina’s state legislature “expelled” 30,000 Democratic-leaning black voters from the 1st Congressional District to protect Mace. It was concluded that it did. The state appealed the ruling, and the Supreme Court heard arguments in October but has not yet issued a ruling.
Both the state and the civil rights groups challenging the district had asked for a high court ruling by January 1 to allow orderly preparation for the upcoming election.
In arguments last year, the justices seemed inclined to side with the district and reject the lower court’s ruling. The state argued that partisan politics and coastal population booms, not race, explained the congressional map.
On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union, part of the coalition that filed the lawsuit on behalf of the NAACP and voter Tywan Scott, criticized the decision.
“South Carolina’s failure to correct its racist congressional map blatantly ignores the voices of our brave clients and the rights of Black voters,” said Adriel, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project.・I. Cepeda Delue said. “By refusing to take meaningful action, Congress has undermined our democracy and further entrenched voter suppression in our state. Rest assured, we will continue to fight.”
Lawyers for the South Carolina leaders named as defendants did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
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The case is based on an Alabama case in which the Supreme Court ruled last year that Republican lawmakers had diluted the political power of black voters under a landmark voting rights law by drawing only one majority-black district. It is different from. The justices’ decision creates a new map that includes the 2nd Congressional District, where Democratic-leaning black voters make up a significant portion of the electorate.
