The U.S. Supreme Court has approved a controversial congressional map drawn by South Carolina's Republican-dominated state legislature after a lower court ruled that it improperly diluted the power of Black voters through racial gerrymandering.
The decision means that South Carolina's representation in the U.S. House of Representatives will likely remain at six Republicans and one Democrat.
The 6-3 decision lead to sniping in the minority opinion, with Justice Elena Kagan accusing Justice Samuel Alito as acting as an attorney for the South Carolina Senate: “Such micro-management of a plaintiff's case is elsewhere unheard of in constitutional litigation.”
The South Carolina NAACP had argued that race was the predominant factor in the configuration of district boundaries – specifically for South Carolina's 1st Congressional District.
BREAKING: In a 6-3 decision by Justice Alito, SCOTUS reversed our important redistricting win in Alexander v. South Carolina where the lower court found that race predominated in the design of the congressional map. https://t.co/GjsKjItlsY pic.twitter.com/edF5azGSlO
— Janai Nelson (@JNelsonLDF) May 23, 2024
Writing for the majority, Alito underscored the importance of distinguishing between race and politics in legal challenges and emphasized that legislatures should be presumed to be acting in good faith.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
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