SOUTHERN MAPS AND BLACK VOTERS
By Lisa Desjardins, @LisaDNews
Correspondent
 
As the Supreme Court debates the intersection of race and politics (see below), our gaze turns to the states awaiting its rulings – and one question in particular: What do new maps mean for Black voters in the South, who have been historically protected by the Voting Rights Act? SCOTUS is considering a challenge to a key provision in the landmark legislation this week.
 
When it comes to voters of color and redistricting across the nation, the story is varied. For example, California significantly increased districts with Latino representation, driven by the growing Latino population in the state. But in the South specifically, several states are moving in the opposite direction.
 
Lawmakers in those red states argue that they have prioritized town and city boundaries to keep communities together, regardless of race. Civil rights activists reject that argument and say the new lines clearly favor white and Republican voting blocks.
 
Florida
Total 2022 congressional seats: 28
New maps: The state will have two fewer districts made up of a majority of Black voters. It moves from four to two. 
Black-majority voter districts will be: 7 percent of congressional seats
State population: 17 percent Black 
 
At the urging of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who fought members of his own party on this issue, Florida remapped the state’s 5th Congressional District, where Blacks had been the largest single voting group. That district spanned the north of the state and DeSantis argued that it was unconstitutionally gerrymandered to favor Black voters.
 
The new maps also redraw the 10th Congressional District, resulting in a dilution of Black voter numbers there, so that they are no longer a viable voting force on their own. 
 
The state’s changes raise a myriad of questions about what is equal opportunity for voters.
 
Georgia
Total 2022 congressional seats: 14
New maps: Moves from four Black-majority districts to two.
Black-majority voter districts will be: 14 percent of congressional seats
Population: 33 percent Black
 
The state’s Black population increased 13 percent since 2010, but Georgia’s new maps removed two, or half, of its majority-Black districts. The 2nd Congressional District in the southwest corner and the 5th Congressional District in the Atlanta area, which civil rights icon John Lewis represented prior to his death, will no longer be majority Black. 
 
North Carolina
Total 2022 congressional seats: 14
New maps: Move from one to zero congressional districts with Black plurality. 
Black-majorityvoter districts will be: 0 percent of congressional districts
Population: 22 percent Black
 
North Carolina’s northern 1st Congressional District has long included significant portions of the state’s so-called “Black belt,” counties with majority Black populations. In the 21st century, it has always elected an African American to Congress. 
 
That could change this election. Under new maps, Blacks are no longer the largest single voting group, or plurality in the district. It is rated as just “lean Democratic” by the Cook Political Report and is a target for Republicans to flip. Current Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., blasted the new map as “racially gerrymandered” as he announced his retirement last year.
 
Alabama and Louisiana
Total congressional seats: 7 in Alabama. 6 in Louisiana.
New maps: The new maps keep one Black-majority seat in each state.
Black-majority districts will be: 14 percent of congressional districts in Alabama and 17 percent in Louisiana.
Population: Alabama is 27 percent Black. Louisiana is 33 percent Black.
 
These two states are central in the Supreme Court case heard today.
 
Both have significant and growing Black populations, which numerically could fit the qualifications for two additional congressional districts. But each state has continued to keep a single Black majority Congressional district on its map.
 
Lawmakers argue that the Black population in Alabama is not contiguous enough to produce compact, reasonable maps that allow for two majority-minority districts. Civil rights activists dispute that vehemently, insisting that Black communities have been split on current maps while white communities have not.
 
Also at issue is how the court sees equal opportunity. At what point do maps close off voters from having a fair chance to elect a representative of their choosing, as required by the Voting Rights Act.
 
Lower courts ruled that Alabama’s maps did violate the Voting Rights Act. But the Supreme Court froze that ruling while it decides the case.

WHY THE HIGH COURT’S NEW TERM WILL LIKELY BE DEFINED BY RACE
By Marcia Coyle, @MarciaCoyle
Chief Washington correspondent for The National Law Journal
 
If last term was defined by the court’s abortion decision, the new term is likely to be defined by race.
 
Here are two major cases that will undoubtedly garner lots of attention.
 
On redistricting
 
On Tuesday, the justices heard arguments in a voting rights case from Alabama. A three-judge district court ruled that the state’s 2021 congressional map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because it diluted the votes of Black Alabamians by packing those voters into one district. The district court agreed with challengers of the map, who argued that those voters deserved a second congressional district based on their proportion of the population. The state argues that race should not be a consideration at all in the redistricting process.
 
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, allowed the map, deemed discriminatory, to take effect and scheduled the challenge for arguments on the merits. Chief Justice Roberts joined the court’s three liberal justices in dissent. Voting rights advocates worry that the conservative majority is prepared to once again cut back the Voting Rights Act, considered the crown jewel of the civil rights movement.
 
In 2013, a 5-4 conservative majority gutted Section 5 of the act, which required states with histories of voting discrimination to get any voting changes precleared by the U.S. Justice Department or a federal court in Washington, D.C. And in a 2021 case from Arizona, a 6-3 conservative majority narrowed Section 2, the only major section of the act remaining in effect. 
 
On college admissions
 
In late October, the justices also will hear arguments in two challenges to the use of race as a factor in the admissions policies of Harvard College and the University of North Carolina.
 
In 2003, the Supreme Court upheld the use of race as part of a holistic view of student applicants in order to achieve diverse student bodies in higher education. In the Harvard and University of North Carolina cases, the challengers – an organization founded by a long-time foe of all racial preferences – argued that the court should overturn its 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger.
 
Though all of the justices paid homage to stare decisis (standing by precedent) during their Senate confirmation hearings, there is an intense internal debate about when it should be followed. That debate played out most recently in harsh words in last term’s abortion decision overruling the nearly 50-year-old Roe v. Wade and 30-year-old Planned Parenthood v. Casey.


#POLITICSTRIVIA

By Tess Conciatori, @tkconch
White House Producer
 
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson took the bench at the high court for the first time on Monday in a history-making moment. The justice earned both her law and undergraduate degrees at Harvard University, where she took an acting class and became scene partners with this now-famous celebrity. 
 
Our question: Can you name the movie star who was Jackson’s acting partner?
 
Send your answers to [email protected] or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shout-out next week.
 
Last week, we asked: How many women are major party nominees for governor this year?
 
The answer: 25. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, 16 Democratic and 9 Republican women are nominees for governor, amounting to a new record overall.
 
Congratulations to our winners: Tom Holston and Dean M. Gottehrer!
 
Thank you all for reading and watching. We’ll drop into your inbox next week.