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FEDERAL COURT STRIKES MAJOR BLOW TO BLACK VOTING RIGHTS  
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Brandon Tensley
March 28, 2024
Capital B
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_ The decision means South Carolina’s June primary likely will be
held under a map that the court had already deemed unconstitutional
and discriminatory. _

Brenda Murphy, the president of the South Carolina State Conference
of the NAACP, said in a statement that the congressional maps are “a
direct attempt to suppress Black voices ahead of a consequential
election.” (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images),

 

A federal district court’s order on Thursday allowing South Carolina
to use a racially discriminatory congressional map for the 2024
election cycle is a gut punch to Black voters.

“For over a century, the NAACP has worked fervently to protect Black
Americans’ access to the ballot box. Make no mistake — these
discriminatory maps are a direct attempt to suppress Black voices
ahead of a consequential election,” Brenda Murphy, the president of
the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, a plaintiff in the
case, said in a statement
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Without a fair map, it would be enormously difficult for Black voters
to elect a representative who has their interests at heart and who
would fight for them on issues ranging from education to criminal
justice to health care.

It’s still possible for the U.S. Supreme Court to step in before the
Palmetto State’s June 11 primaries, but that seems increasingly
unlikely. At least for now, it appears that Black voters are stuck
with a racially discriminatory map.

For House Republicans, who are hoping to maintain their wafer-thin
majority, the court’s order is a major victory. For Black voters,
however, the very opposite is true.

“Important decisions are made based on who the representative is.
And these decisions affect people’s ability to live a quality
life,” Murphy told Capital B last year
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In January 2023, a three-judge panel found that South Carolina
lawmakers had expelled some 30,000 Black voters in Charleston County
from the 1st Congressional District and moved them to the 6th
District. This “bleaching of African American voters” from the
area, the panel wrote
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diluted their voting power, and it ordered the state legislature to
redraw the map.

After the state appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, the
justices heard oral arguments in October, and seemed prepared to side
with South Carolina Republicans. They insisted that they were
motivated not by racially discriminatory intent but by partisan
loyalty, even though race and party are linked.

Attorneys had asked the high court to decide by the start of this
year, “but with the primary election procedures rapidly approaching,
the appeal before the Supreme Court still pending, and no remedial
plan in place, the ideal must bend to the practical,” the district
court wrote
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Even with this disappointing news, Black voters’ commitment to
securing a fair map hasn’t wavered.

“The people of our state and our country deserve more than
suppression and discriminatory practices,” Taiwan Scott, the
individual plaintiff in the case, said in a statement. “We will
continue to fight to bring justice to congressional elections in South
Carolina.”

_Brandon Tensley is Capital B's national politics reporter._

_CAPITAL B is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to uncovering
important stories — like this one — about how Black people
experience America today. As more and more important information
disappears behind paywalls, it's crucial that we keep our
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* voting rights
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* South Carolina
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* Courts
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* racial discrimination
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* Congress
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