A federal judge, appointed by former President Barack Obama, upheld Republicans’ redrawn congressional maps in Georgia, on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones had ordered new congressional maps to be drawn back in October, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on a case concerning black voters and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The judge found the new maps to be in compliance.
“The court finds that the general assembly fully complied with this court’s order requiring the creation of Black-majority districts in the regions of the state where vote dilution was found,” Jones wrote in his order.
The decision makes it likely that the GOP will maintain their 9-5 advantage with the state’s 14 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, Reuters reports.
Jones’ ruling in October said that numerous state and Congressional districts created in 2021 violated the Voting Rights Act and discriminated against black voters, GPB News noted, adding that the GOP-controlled General Assembly was then tasked with creating new maps that included an additional majority-black Congressional district, two additional majority-black state Senate districts, and five new majority-black districts in the state House.
The state filed an appeal, but also moved forward with a special session to address the issues with the Congressional maps.
The issue was first stirred up when the U.S. Supreme Court in June issued a surprising 5-4 ruling that found an Alabama Congressional map as discriminatory.
Chief Justice John Roberts was joined by fellow conservative Brett Kavanaugh and the court’s three liberal justices in the majority, requiring the Alabama state legislature to redraw a Congressional map to add an additional black-majority district in accordance with the Voting Rights Act, The Daily Wire reported at the time. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett dissented.
Those arguing that the map was discriminatory said the map was racially gerrymandered, packing black voters into the 7th congressional district to reduce the impact of their votes in other districts.
“A district is not equally open, in other words, when minority voters face – unlike their majority peers – bloc voting along racial lines, arising against the backdrop of substantial racial discrimination within the State, that renders a minority vote unequal to a vote by a nonminority voter,” Roberts wrote.
Thomas, who dissented, argued that the Voting Rights Act should not apply to redistricting, “At the outset, I would resolve these cases in a way that would not require the Federal Judiciary to decide the correct racial apportionment of Alabama’s congressional seats,” he wrote.
This whole thing is totally ridiculous, having dealt with it for years. The same thing happened in Florida, where Jacksonville’s majority Black voters were given a district that first ran south picking up part of Gainesville’s Democrat voter base, before bouncing off to the north side of Orlando where it picked up additional Democrat Voters, to overwhelm the predominantly white conservative Republican vote in the rural sector in between.
The district was redrawn after much complaint over the elected representative, and lines went west encompassing eastern Duval County, and Baker, Columbia, and Hamilton counties, all majority white conservative Republican, before reaching Madison and northern Leon County where the votes swing predominantly Democrat, influenced by government and college employees commuting to Tallahassee, to once again overwhelm the majority conservative white Republican vote.
District Representative, Corrine Brown, who is of course black, was sent to prison over numerous counts of misappropriation of campaign and non-profit funds over her 20+ year Congressional career. Where she spent less than 6 months of a 5-year sentence, handed down out of a potential 298 years faced, over the long list of charges against her. Her Congressional replacement, also of course black, faced similar corruption charges after only 4 years in office.
When district lines were last redrawn, north Jacksonville’s majority black voters were given their own little district, all to themselves, that didn’t disenfranchise white voters in any of the neighboring rural communities, and the DNC screamed Ron DeSantis had wronged them. Case was filed demanding reconsideration, the lines were reviewed, and everything was found perfectly in order, no miscarriage of justice, no prejudice, no black folks wronged in any way. Meaning, for nearly 30 years, white conservative voters were wronged in district representation.
To say we were fed up, would be an understatement. Our voice was not heard in Congress for decades. In fact, it was intentionally suppressed by the Democrat Party.
Rocky this happened in Alabama also. Kay Ivey took it to Supreme Court, but lost so they had to redraw the map. This is so unfair.
Didn’t this country already sacrifice 1/4 million people fighting a war on color? Can’t WE move forward? If WE can’t judge on character, maybe WE have NO BUSINESS judging at all, have you ever thought of that? Leave it to GOD and stop the BS!
This judge is not controlled by The Obuma Organization.
Finally a judge who can see through the Democrats and their sickening antics.
Their main goal is the destruction of America, to be reborn in their Democratic Socialist imagery of what is good for us!