Sep 12, 2024 Story by: Editor
A federal district court has dismissed a lawsuit that claimed Arkansas’s congressional map was racially discriminatory, marking a setback for Black voters seeking fair representation. This outcome follows a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on racial gerrymandering.
The lawsuit, initiated by a group of Black Arkansas voters in 2022, argued that lawmakers redrawing the state’s congressional districts after the 2020 Census had spread Black voters across three different districts, weakening their influence. The plaintiffs maintained that this division diluted their voting power, in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
In May 2023, the district court initially dismissed the case, stating that the plaintiffs had not provided enough evidence to show that race played a predominant role in the redrawing of the map. The plaintiffs appealed the decision directly to the U.S. Supreme Court the following month.
However, after the Supreme Court upheld South Carolina’s congressional map in the case of Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP, it sent the Arkansas case back to the district court for reconsideration under a more stringent standard for challenging racially discriminatory maps.
On Wednesday, a three-judge panel once again dismissed the case, ruling that the plaintiffs’ claims weren’t strong enough to overcome the presumption that the Legislature acted in good faith. The court pointed out “fatal flaws” in the case, including the plaintiffs’ failure to eliminate the possibility that “partisan gerrymandering” — rather than racial factors — was the main reason for the new districts. “Having carefully reviewed Alexander, the parties’ arguments, and the amended complaint, we have not changed our minds,” the court stated. Source: Democracy Docket
