(The Center Square) — A federal trial over Georgia’s state legislative district maps is set to kick off next week in Atlanta.
In 2021, a number of Georgia citizens and teams, together with the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and the Sixth District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, filed swimsuit in opposition to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. They argued that the state’s legislative maps drafted in 2021 violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In the lawsuit, they alleged state lawmakers enacted maps with district traces that disregarded the state’s demographic shift, together with a 16% build up within the state’s Black inhabitants and sought to “systematically minimize the political power of Black Georgians in violation of federal law.” Lawmakers “drew only a small handful of new Black-majority districts, mostly in areas that were already electing Black-preferred candidates.”
“When districts are drawn to minimize the voices of Black voters in Georgia, it damages our democracy,” Rahul Garabadu, senior vote casting rights personnel legal professional, ACLU of Georgia, mentioned in a remark. “We filed this lawsuit on behalf of our clients to ensure that state legislative districts are drawn so that Black voters have an equal opportunity to elect candidates of choice. We look forward to presenting our case at trial next week.”
Spokespeople for Raffensperger, Gov. Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr, all Republicans, didn’t reply to a request for remark. Last month, a federal pass judgement on denied the state’s movement for a abstract judgment within the lawsuit.
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