Supreme Court allows disputed South Carolina voting map, a win for GOP
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the use of a South Carolina congressional map that a lower court said “exiled” thousands of Black voters to carve out a district safer for a White Republican incumbent. At issue for the court was whether South Carolina’s new map, which was created by the GOP-led state legislature and moved Black voters from one district to another, was permitted to bolster the Republican majority or was an unconstitutional effort to divvy up voters by race. The 6-3 conservative majority reversed the lower court finding that the map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander but gave Black voters a chance to continue the case using a different argument. The decision marked a victory for Republicans not only because it clears the way for a map that is favorable to the GOP. It also sets a high bar for determining when a map can be considered a racial gerrymander, rather than a partisan one. The court has previously found that the Constitution bars racial gerrymandering but that federal courts cannot police partisan gerrymandering.
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