Jan 23, 2025 Story by: Editor
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia is pursuing another Supreme Court battle over the Voting Rights Act, urging a federal appeals court to adopt an interpretation of the 1965 law that would make it significantly harder to prove illegal dilution of minority votes.
During a hearing on Thursday, a lawyer representing Georgia asked the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta to reverse a lower court decision requiring state lawmakers to create additional Black-majority electoral districts.
Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger argued in legal filings that the Voting Rights Act has been misapplied to enhance Democratic electoral chances, asserting that white voters support Republicans for reasons unrelated to race.
Georgia Solicitor General Stephen Petrany, representing the state, stated that the evidence does not demonstrate that white voters’ preferences are racially motivated in the districts designed by Republicans. “It is not covered when the majority simply outvoted the minority based on political polarization,” Petrany said.
However, attorneys for the federal government and advocacy groups that filed lawsuits to redraw Georgia’s congressional and legislative maps argued that the state is attempting to impose a stricter standard that could weaken Voting Rights Act protections. This effort comes shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the landmark law in a similar case involving Alabama.
Abha Khanna, representing some of the plaintiffs, noted that in Georgia, Black voters overwhelmingly back Democrats, while white voters predominantly favor Republicans. “The secretary cannot muster any nonracial explanation for why Black and white voters in Georgia have separated so neatly into separate political parties,” Khanna stated.
Noah Bokat-Lindell, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, defended the lower court ruling and reaffirmed federal involvement in the case despite shifts in administration priorities.
The Voting Rights Act was enacted to eliminate racial discrimination in elections, including practices like gerrymandering that prevent minority groups from electing their preferred candidates. Redistricting in the South, carried out every decade to reflect population changes, often leads to legal challenges over fairness to Black voters.
In Georgia, litigation led to a federal court order mandating the creation of one additional Black-majority congressional district near west metro Atlanta, as well as more Black-majority state Senate and House districts.
While Democrats hoped the ruling would bring electoral gains, Republicans redrew the maps in ways that preserved their 9-5 majority in congressional districts and their 33-23 advantage in the state Senate. Democrats gained only two seats in the state House, reducing the Republican majority to 100-80.
Raffensperger contended that the lower court erred by failing to establish that white voters’ behavior was racially driven. He cited the Republican nomination of Herschel Walker, a Black candidate, for the Senate in 2022 as evidence.
“The evidence is virtually undisputed that when you change the race of the candidate, the majority votes virtually the same,” Petrany said. “When you change the party of the candidate, the majority voting behavior changes drastically.”
Circuit Judge Barbara Lagoa, appointed by Donald Trump, appeared to agree, asking, “Isn’t this the best evidence that it’s partisan and not racial?”
Sophia Lakin, representing the American Civil Liberties Union, countered that Walker’s candidacy was an isolated instance that does not outweigh the broader evidence.
Petrany argued that much of the evidence presented is outdated and that Georgia’s history of segregation should not dictate current interpretations. “It can’t be that the sins of the past forever taint what Georgia is doing today,” he said.
However, Judge Robin Rosenbaum, a Barack Obama appointee, stressed the importance of historical context. “That just ignores the history of what’s happened over 200 years in Georgia,” Rosenbaum stated. Source: US News
