A federal three-judge panel ruled Thursday that South Carolina Republican state lawmakers can use their congressional map for this year’s elections while the Supreme Court considers if it is a racial gerrymander.
The reinstated map strengthens the Republican favor in Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-S.C.) district, helping Republicans retain control of the House in November.
State lawmakers are appealing the panel’s previous decision that invalidated their map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Despite the upcoming election, the Supreme Court has not yet made a ruling, despite a request to do so by Jan. 1.
Due to the delay, the three-judge District Court panel agreed to reinstate the map for this year’s elections only. The lawmakers pointed out that the candidate filing period closes April 1, and ballots are set to be sent out shortly.
The panel wrote in its five-page ruling, “Having found that Congressional District No. 1 constitutes an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, the Court fully recognizes that ‘it would be the unusual case in which a court would be justified in not taking appropriate action to insure that no further elections are conducted under an invalid plan.’” five-page ruling.
“But with the primary election procedures rapidly approaching, the appeal before the Supreme Court still pending, and no remedial plan in place, the ideal must bend to the practical,” the ruling continued.
The three judges were all appointed by Democratic presidents.
The decision reinstates a map that the three-judge panel found impermissibly shifted about 30,000 Black Charleston-area voters to a different district in violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The panel rejected the lawmakers’ claim that they changed the boundaries for political reasons, to boost Mace’s chances, and ruled that race was the main factor in the new design.
However, the panel did not require the lawmakers to immediately submit a new map as the case went to the Supreme Court, leaving the state’s congressional map unresolved in recent months.
The lawmakers’ attorneys argued in written filings that it is too late to seek a change in the panel’s orders or to rush through a new plan for the 2024 elections.
The plaintiffs who challenged the map — a Black voter and the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP — had opposed the move.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote in court papers, “Contrary to Defendants’ pleas, thirteen full months of legislative inaction does not warrant a stay. There is still time to draft and enact a new plan for the 2024 congressional elections, and Defendants’ misleading and unproven claims about election imminence and voter confusion do not justify a stay.”
State lawmakers had also filed an emergency appeal at the Supreme Court to reinstate their map, but the high court had not yet made a decision.
