Supreme Court approves use of S.C. congressional map that affects 30,000 Black voters

May 23 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a pro-Republican redraw of a South Carolina congressional district did not unlawfully exclude Black voters, rejecting a lower court's decision earlier this year.

The high court ruled 6-3, with the court's conservative majority deciding civil rights groups that challenged the map had not done enough to prove that legislators redrew Republican Sen. Nancy Mace's district for racial reasons.

"The circumstantial evidence falls far short of showing that race, not partisan preferences, drove the districting process, and none of the expert reports offered by the challengers provides any significant support for their position," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion.

In her dissent, liberal Justice Elena Kagan wrote the majority's decision gives state legislators "an incentive to use race as a proxy to achieve partisan ends."

"Go right ahead, this court says to states today. Go ahead, though you have no recognized justification for using race, such as to comply with statutes ensuring equal voting rights," she wrote. "Go ahead, though you are [at best] using race as a short-cut to bring about partisan gains -- to elect more Republicans in one case, more Democrats in another."

A lower court in January 2023 ruled race was the primary concern when Republicans moved roughly 30,000 Black voters out of Mace's Charleston-area district and into the district of Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, who is Black.

Despite its ruling, the lower court said legislators could keep the map for this year's election, as the Supreme Court's decision had not come quickly enough for the state to develop an alternative.

The Supreme Court has said it would not review partisan gerrymanders, meaning mapmakers are largely free to redraw district maps in ways that favor one party over another, but it is illegal to make changes along racial lines.

The difference between race and political affiliation, however, can be blurred, particularly in the South, where Black voters tend to be Democrats.

Mace's district has been a partisan battleground ever since Democrat Joe Cunningham won the seat in 2018 in a historic upset for the traditionally Republican district.

Mace narrowly won against Cunningham in 2020. State legislators then redrew the map to benefit the GOP, and Mace won again by a wider margin two years later.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and other civil rights groups accused Republicans of unlawfully considering race and diluting the power of Black voters when it redrew the district map.

South Carolina Republicans appealed the case to the Supreme Court, arguing that politics, not race, was the primary factor.

The litigation over South Carolina's district map comes after the Supreme Court last year in a 5-4 ruling ordered Alabama to redraw its district map, siding with groups who argued legislators violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act.