South Carolina Will Use Gerrymandered Congressional Map in 2024, District Court Rules

[RandySF]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The same federal court that struck down South Carolina’s congressional map for being an unconstitutional racial gerrymander ruled today that the state can use the map in the upcoming 2024 elections.

This decision comes after Republican officials asked the court to pause its January 2023 decision that blocked the map and ordered a new one for 2024. Today’s order states that because the June 11 primary is rapidly approaching and a new map is not in place, “the ideal must bend to the practical.”

South Carolina voters have gone over a year without a fair congressional map. With today’s order, justice is delayed once again to Black voters in the state. The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to issue its opinion on the merits, which the court cites as a reason for this delay.

In January 2022, the Republican-controlled South Carolina Legislature passed a congressional map that drastically changed the composition of the state’s 1st and 6th congressional districts. The South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and a voter filed a lawsuit challenging the congressional map, alleging that the map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander in violation of the 14th and 15th Amendments.



https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/south-carolina-will-use-gerrymandered-congressional-map-in-2024-district-court-rules/