Only overt racism, the court’s conservative majority held, was grounds for nullifying a state’s congressional map. “Gerrymandering” districts to provided partisan advantage – as the process is called – is constitutional, even if it dilutes minority voting power.
That prompted a series of Republican-dominated southern states to scramble to dismantle their court-mandated majority minority districts – which, because of historic political preferences, were mostly held by black Democrats – and replace them with ones that Republicans were likely to win.
South Carolina is among the states considering a new map.
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