(RepublicanReport.org) – Several of the nation’s courts are currently working to resolve districting issues, with the 2024 general elections less than a year away. That process is further complicated by the US Supreme Court’s recent rulings regarding the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). A federal judge appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2011 recently ruled in favor of Republicans in a Georgia case.
In October 2023, US District Judge Steve Jones ordered Georgia’s Republican-led legislature to draft new Congressional maps in the wake of a SCOTUS ruling concerning the voting rights of African American voters and the VRA. Jones ruled that several state and federal congressional districts drafted in 2021 violated the VRA and discriminated against blacks.
The judge ordered the Georgia assembly to draft new maps that included a new Congressional district with a majority of black voters. He also instructed lawmakers to create five additional majority-black districts in the state House and two in the state’s Senate. Republican lawmakers filed an appeal in the conservative-leaning US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. Nevertheless, Georgia legislators held a special session to comply with Jones’ directive to create new Congressional maps.
Georgia lawmakers recently submitted their new district maps to the court for review. Then, on December 28, Jones sided with Republican lawmakers and ruled that the new maps complied with the VRA and no longer discriminated against black voters.
On the plus side, media outlets quickly reported that Jones’ decision to approve the new Congressional maps would all but guarantee that Republicans maintain their 9 to 5 margin among Georgia’s 14 seats in the US House.
That situation could prove critical, with Republicans recently losing two seats in the wake of former New York Representative George Santos’ ouster and Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (CA) decision to resign at the end of December. It could be vital to the GOP maintaining their control of the House after the upcoming 2024 general elections.
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