Supreme Court’s Conservative Judges Consider Reviving Controversial South Carolina Map
The conservative majority of the Supreme Court of the United States wants to revive an electoral map that is Republican-drawn. This majority in question wants to revive the map of South Carolina. This map was earlier blocked by a judgment from one of the lower courts. The lower court saw racial bias and hence blocked it. This map apparently excluded 30,000 Black residents from that congressional district.
Arguments were going on in a different case. The case was about the control that the U.S. House of Representatives would have in the 2024 elections. During the arguments, the conservative justices expressed sympathy toward the map.
They expressed their support for the arguments from the South Carolina officials while they defended the once-blocked map. According to the officials, the change in composition could be for the benefit of the Republicans.
This map in question was adopted last year in the Republican-led state legislature. They redrew the boundaries of a South Carolina district that had representation in the House of Representatives. The district includes parts of Charleston by the Atlantic coast.
A Court ruled in January stating that the map was dividing voters based on racial lines. This federal three-judge panel stated that the newly drawn map diminished the number of Black voters. The result was, therefore, in violation of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The issue is that black voters tend to favor Democratic candidates.
Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch stated that, “Here, there’s no evidence that the legislature could have achieved its partisan tilt – which everyone says is permissible – in any other way.”
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