Georgia Republicans have decided not to redistrict their state after all.
The decision came Wednesday after Governor Brian Kemp called the legislature into a special session to do so ahead of the 2028 election. But Peach State lawmakers flouted Kemp’s demands, arguing that the executive had not given them enough time to shift the state’s voting maps.
“When the House learned that it was placed…
President Donald Trump’s plummeting popularity has promised a bloodbath for Republicans in this year’s midterm elections. To head off that debacle, party leaders in red states have set off an arms race of political gerrymandering. They’ve made an unprecedented move to redistrict their states before the next census to create new, safe GOP districts that […]
In 2018, David Tyson Jr., an African American, sued Richardson Independent School District in Texas for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In the district’s 164-year history, Tyson was the only person of color ever to serve on the school board. Yet, at the time of the lawsuit, white students made up less than 30 percent of the district while Black and Hispanic students made up nearly…
Recent Supreme Court decisions have eased the way for states to enact more partisan gerrymanders. Now legislatures are racing to redraw their congressional maps in rare mid-decade redistricting efforts that may reconfigure the calculus of who will win the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives after the midterm elections this November.
These endeavors were inspired by President Donald…
Lakeisha Hood Moïse and Kamilah A. Pickett write about the fallout of Louisiana vs. Callais and what will come next for voting-rights activists.
The post Opinion | Courts Continue to Attack Black Voting Rights in the South appeared first on Mississippi Free Press.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Alabama to use a congressional map favoring Republicans in this year’s elections, blocking a lower court ruling that the redistricting plan intentionally discriminates against Black people.
The post Supreme Court Allows Alabama to Use Congressional Map That Eliminates a Majority-Black District appeared first on Mississippi Free Press.
A major legal win for Black Mississippians that was supposed to lead to new elections for the state Supreme Court was wiped away.
The post How the U.S. Supreme Court’s Callais Ruling Erased a Key Mississippi Voting Rights Victory appeared first on Mississippi Free Press.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor offered a scathing dissent after the court on Tuesday allowed Alabama Republicans to eliminate one of two majority-Black districts ahead of the midterms.
“Before the Court are two paths. Down one lies an orderly election, held under a tried-and-tested congressional map that protects Black Alabamians’ right to vote and with which all voters, elections…
Louisiana Republicans passed a new congressional map Friday that eliminates the majority-Black district that was at the center of the Supreme Court ruling overturning the Voting Rights Act.
In a state where one in three residents are Black, the new map redraws the state’s 6th congressional district, which is currently represented by Black Democratic Representative Cleo Fields. Republicans are…
One week after joining the NAACP in its call for Black student athletes to boycott Southern states participating in gerrymandering
South Carolina has decided not to get involved in President Donald Trump’s redistricting war.
The state Senate voted 24–20 Tuesday to leave their House districts alone for the upcoming midterm elections. Twelve Republicans broke ranks to join all Democrat state senators in the decision, which will likely save the state’s one blue seat held by Representative James Clyburn.
A few Republican…
On Monday, a three-judge federal court panel with two Trump appointees restored an Alabama congressional map with two majority-Black districts for the 2026 midterm elections, finding that another map recently green lit by the Supreme Court intentionally discriminated against Black voters. The same panel had already concluded last year following a full trial that Alabama […]
Thousands of Mississippians gathered in Jackson, Mississippi, on Wednesday to protest the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent voting rights ruling that threatens the existence of majority-Black districts throughout the South.
The post Photos | Mississippians Protest Redistricting Efforts After Voting Rights Ruling appeared first on Mississippi Free Press.
Claire B. Wofford and Jordan Ragusa write about the influence of race on political gerrymandering.
The post Opinion | Racial Gerrymandering May Be Here to Stay appeared first on Mississippi Free Press.
Eight members of the Congressional Black Caucus stand next to each other at a press conference, with chair Rep. Yvette Clark standing at the lectern.
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) is the first Black member of Congress elected from South Carolina since Reconstruction, and the only Black Democrat ever elected from the state. He has been elected seventeen times during his thirty-two year career and rose to become the third-ranking Democrat in the US House. His seat was drawn in 1992 to […]
A multiracial group of civil rights leaders and activists are gearing up for a new fight for Black political representation after the latest Supreme Court ruling further weakened the Voting Rights Act.
The post Supreme Court Voting Rights Ruling Fuels a New Push to Defend Black Representation appeared first on Mississippi Free Press.
A Tennessee lawmaker is retiring because his district will no longer exist after this year.
Democratic Representative Steve Cohen announced Friday that he will not be representing Tennessee’s 9th congressional district after his term expires due to the state legislature’s recent decision to carve up the predominantly Black and Democratic voting base.
In future, the area will consist of several…
_You can watch this episode of Right Now With Perry Bacon above or by following this show on YouTube or Substack._
The unfairness created by Republican gerrymandering in states across the country ahead of the midterm elections is the latest sign of the deep flaws of the American political system. In the latest edition of _Right Now_ , political scientists Lee Drutman of the think tank New…
They warn the ruling will impact voter rights, especially those of racial minorities.
The post “An all-hands-on-deck moment”: Student organizations, faculty raise alarm after Louisiana v. Callais decision appeared first on The Stanford Daily.
Republicans in two more Southern states, South Carolina and Georgia, are moving ahead with plans to redraw their districts this year following the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act in _Louisiana v. Callais_ last month.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster is planning to call state legislators for a special session, local TV station WIS-10 reports. A spokesperson for the governor…
Representative Jen Kiggans won’t explain why she agreed with racist comments about House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
The Virginia Republican was completely mum Tuesday as MeidasTouch asked several point-blank questions related to her recent endorsement of a radio host saying Jeffries had “cotton-picking hands.”
“Representative, do you have anything more to say after agreeing with racist…
In a stunning act of political partisanship, the Roberts Court on Monday night discarded its own precedents to green-light a last-ditch effort by Alabama to use a gerrymandered congressional map for the 2026 midterms. The move, which comes less than two weeks after the court destroyed the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais, will […]
The Supreme Court has cleared the way for Alabama to use a congressional map that disregards one of two majority-Black voting districts in the state—a decision that one justice predicted would cause “chaos” and “confusion.”
All three of the court’s liberal justices dissented against Monday’s order, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor penned the counter-argument. In five concise pages, Sotomayor flamed…
This is a lightly edited transcript of the May 8 edition of Right Now With Perry Bacon. You can watch the video here or by following this show on YouTube or Substack.
Perry Bacon: I’m Perry Bacon. I’m the host of The New Republic show Right Now. I’m joined by two great political scientists. Hakeem Jefferson is at Stanford University. Jake Grumbach is at the University of California,…
A Republican Virginia lawmaker is facing calls to resign after she agreed with a wildly racist statement about Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Representative Jen Kiggans appeared on Richmond-based radio commentator Rich Herrera’s show Monday to discuss the state’s hotly contested congressional maps. But the since-deleted interview flew off the rails when Kiggans emphatically concurred with…
Republican state legislators, governors, state supreme court justices, and U.S. Supreme Court justices have combined over the last week to effectively hand up to 10 U.S. House seats to the GOP. That’s not just bad for the Democrats, although it most definitely is that. It’s bad for democracy. This can’t be accepted as normal.
Early last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a…
Reem Ibrahim appears on the left, Katherine Mangu-Ward appears on the right. In the center box, there is an image of California Governor Gavin Newsom holding up a package of diapers. Above him reads bold text "$20 Million for Diapers?"
Democrats asked the Supreme Court Monday to block a state judiciary ruling that upended their redistricting effort.
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Friday that the proposed maps were essentially invalid because state Democrats did not follow proper procedure. In Virginia, the General Assembly is required to pass a constitutional amendment not just once, but twice. The first vote must be…
Top Virginia Democrats have decided against exercising a controversial procedural end run around last week’s state Supreme Court ruling that struck down their redistricting, which wiped away a gain of four House seats, the Democratic leader of the state Senate told _The New Republic_.
The decision—which nixes a complicated idea, discussed over the weekend by Democrats, to replace the state…