In a recent decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of South Carolina’s redrawn congressional map, overturning a lower court ruling. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had challenged the map, arguing that legislators were motivated by race when drawing district lines and committed “intentional racial discrimination.
In 2023, a panel of federal judges found that “race predominated over all other factors” when legislators redrew South Carolina’s First Congressional District, currently represented by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C. This finding was based in part on the movement of more than 30,000 black voters to a different district.
To prove that race was the predominant factor motivating legislators who are redrawing districts, plaintiffs challenging a new map must provide proof that the state elevated race above other factors, such as contiguity, according to court precedent. The judges who handed down the earlier ruling “clearly erred” because the challengers did not provide such proof, Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, said.
Justice Alito was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, all appointees of President Donald Trump. Justice Clarence Thomas, an appointee of President H. W. Bush, wrote a concurring opinion. Justice Elena Kagan, an appointee of President Barack Obama, filed a dissent, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The new map was created after the receipt of data from the 2020 census and enacted in 2022. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican who signed the updated map, told reporters that he believed the Supreme Court made the right decision. Brenda Murphy, president of the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, criticized the court’s decision as a “gut punch” to voting rights and democracy in South Carolina.
The First Congressional District includes more than half of the state’s coast and parts of Charleston. It has a population of about 762,000, with Republicans winning elections in the district for decades starting in the 1980s. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) won with 50.6 percent of the vote in 2020 and earned another term with 56.3 percent of the vote in 2022.
Justice Alito also criticized the lower court judges for not finding challengers at fault for their failure to provide an alternative map showing how legislators could have achieved their “legitimate political objectives” while producing “significantly greater racial balance.” The majority found similar errors in the lower court’s findings that legislators intentionally diluted the votes of black people.
The Court remanded the portion of the case relating to vote dilution back to the district court, with guidance on how to analyze dilution allegations. Drawing political districts is a task for politicians, not federal judges,” Justice Alito wrote. There are no judicially manageable standards for resolving claims about districting, and, regardless, the Constitution commits those issues exclusively to the political branches.