Georgia's Republican-run legislature has passed new maps for Congress, the state Senate, and the state House after a federal court struck down the GOP's existing districts in October for violating the Voting Rights Act by discriminating against Black voters.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is likely to sign these maps into law by Friday's court-imposed deadline. (A larger version of the congressional map, which is shown at the top of this post, can be found here.)
However, there's a strong chance that the court overseeing the challenge to Georgia's districts will conclude that Republican lawmakers failed to comply with its order. That, in turn, could tee up a Supreme Court case with the potential to weaken the VRA and undermine minority representation nationwide.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones had ordered the state to create eight new majority-Black districts to remedy its violations of the VRA: one for Congress, two for the state Senate, and five for the state House. But while Republicans adopted several new majority-Black districts—which would likely elect Black Democrats—they made several other Democratic districts strongly Republican to mitigate their expected losses. The GOP also declined to redraw some of the legislative districts covered by the court's order.
As a result, even though Joe Biden won Georgia in 2020, Donald Trump would have carried a 9-5 majority of congressional seats, a 33-23 majority of state Senate seats, and a 95-85 majority of state House seats under the new maps. Democrats could win majorities in only the most implausible of landslides.
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