Daily Docket — Wednesday, May 22

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a congressional map in South Carolina.

• In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled South Carolina's congressional map is not a racial gerrymander, reversing a lower court decision that struck down the map. The Court also makes it harder to fight racially unfair maps in the future.

  
  

  • Justice Samuel Alito authored the majority opinion, and Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Kentaji Brown Jackson dissented.

  
  

• In a case alleging that Tennessee's congressional map is racially gerrymandered, the state notified a federal court of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision this morning that raised the standards to prove racial unfairness claims.

  
  

• Democracy Docket’s Sophie Feldman breaks down the Supreme Court’s decision in our latest YouTube video.

  
  

Here’s an update on bills in Congress that will impact democracy.

• Congressional Republicans introduced legislation to overturn a Washington, D.C. law that allows noncitizens to vote in local elections races such as mayor and council. Federal law prohibits noncitizen voting in federal elections.

  
  

• Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), introduced a bill to require Supreme Court justices to provide written explanations and a vote breakdown for decisions on their emergency docket, also known as shadow docket.

  
  

Courts in Arizona and Minnesota held hearings today in election cases.

• An Arizona court held a hearing today in a lawsuit challenging the state's 2023 Election Procedures Manual. Pro-voting groups have intervened to defend the manual.

  
  

• A hearing was held in Minnesota today in a challenge to the state’s requirement that absentee voters obtain the signature of a witness to cast an absentee ballot. Voters argue that the law violates the Voting Rights Act.

  
  

Miami residents will now vote under a new city commission map.

• Miami City Commission voted to approve a legal agreement with pro-voter organizations and implement new commission districts after the previous map was struck down for racial gerrymandering.