Georgia still litigating effects of 2021 redistricting on communities of color

Editor’s note: This is the fourth story in the “Crossing the Line” series about conservative efforts in the Deep South to redraw voting districts in a way that disenfranchises Black and Brown voters.

Four years after Georgia lawmakers approved new political maps, the state’s redistricting fight is still playing out in court as voters and advocates argue that the maps undermine the voting power of communities of color.

Meanwhile, in 2025, several states undertook the redistricting process outside the normal once-per-decade cycle to redraw U.S. House districts for partisan gain. Redistricting typically follows the release of U.S. census data and is completed every 10 years, most recently in 2020. The efforts to redraw U.S. House districts for political gain escalated after to create new voting district maps, hoping to boost the party’s congressional victories in the upcoming election.

Georgia state law allows redistricting at any time, but lawmakers are not currently pushing to redraw maps. Georgia adopted new congressional and state legislative maps in late 2021 in a process that Republican lawmakers controlled. Multiple lawsuits were quickly filed, challenging those voting maps as discriminatory and in violation of federal law. The cases are still before the courts.

Legislators should be putting all of their energy into creating policies to improve people’s lives and not focusing on these attempts at cheating the system.”
— Sabrina Khan, a senior supervising attorney for the Ů�Ÿ��’s Democracy: Voting Rights litigation team

Additionally, the work to protect fair maps in Georgia is unfolding under the threat of a potential U.S. Supreme Court decision, expected in coming months, that could weaken Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and undermine the right of voters of color to challenge discriminatory maps in court. Section 2 prohibits election practices, including redistricting plans, that result in the dilution of Black and Brown voters’ ability to elect candidates of their choice. The case, , could significantly impact the future of the VRA and the political influence of voters of color.

If the Supreme Court significantly narrows or effectively eliminates Section 2, it will make racial gerrymandering easier for lawmakers. In Georgia and beyond, the consequences would be devastating, said Ajay Saini, a senior supervising attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Democracy: Voting Rights litigation team.

“At the end of the day, what this means is that Black communities all across Georgia, especially where they are under 50% of the population within a county, will likely have less protection in terms of ensuring that they have a meaningful right to vote,” Saini said.

Legal challenges to Georgia’s redistricting

For the 2020 redistricting cycle, Republicans sought to use the newly drawn districts to in a state with . The 2020 census showed that Georgia’s population had expanded swiftly, gaining 1 million people, and grown increasingly racially diverse since 2010. The population growth was entirely attributed to Black, Latinx, Asian American and Pacific Islander and multiracial residents, while the white, non-Hispanic population decreased. More than half of Georgia’s population growth occurred in five counties making up the metropolitan Atlanta region: Gwinnett, Fulton, Cobb, Forsyth and DeKalb.

Some of the most significant demographic changes took place in Atlanta’s suburbs, where in some cities, people of color comprise the majority of the voting population for the first time. Those changes happened alongside an increase in college-educated residents and an expanding electorate made up largely of voters of color. Those dynamics have helped boost progressive candidates in statewide, congressional and legislative races in recent years.

Voters of color and advocacy organizations disputed Georgia’s congressional and legislative maps in court, filing two lawsuits the day the maps were enacted in December 2021. In Pendergrass v. Raffensperger and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity v. Raffensperger, the plaintiffs argue that the maps dilute the voting power of Black voters, violating Section 2 of the VRA. The cases were consolidated with a similar lawsuit, Grant v. Raffensperger, filed in early 2022.

A federal court eventually struck down all of the maps for violations of the Voting Rights Act. In 2023, the state Legislature passed remedial maps that the court eventually approved. Appeals have been filed on both sides, with the state defendants contesting the court’s finding of liability under Section 2 and the plaintiffs appealing the court’s approval of the remedial maps.

Other lawsuits challenging the state’s congressional maps were consolidated and are currently on hold until the other cases play out. In 2022, the Ů�Ÿ�� and its co-counsel filed a federal lawsuit challenging racially gerrymandered congressional districts on behalf of Common Cause, the League of Women Voters and individual Black voters. In Common Cause v. Raffensperger, the plaintiffs argue that Georgia’s 6th, 13th and 14th congressional districts violate the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — which guarantees equal protection under the law — and unlawfully diminish the power of voters of color. The case was consolidated with a similar challenge brought in 2021 by the Georgia NAACP on behalf of Black, Latinx and Asian voters. The plaintiffs contend that the maps also violate Section 2 by diluting the voting power of voters of color and that lawmakers intentionally enacted them to racially discriminate against voters of color.

The Ů�Ÿ�� and other organizations are also contesting actions at the local level that they say violate Section 2 of the VRA. In October, the Ů�Ÿ�� filed a complaint opposing the use of an that weakened Black voting power in elections for the board of commissioners in Houston County.

These cases reflect the latest chapter in Georgia’s long history of gerrymandering and manipulating election systems to diminish the political influence of voters of color, said Sabrina Khan, a senior supervising attorney for the Ů�Ÿ��’s Democracy: Voting Rights litigation team.

“In Georgia and across the Deep South, we know there is a stark history of gerrymandering to dilute the power of voters of color, especially Black voters,” she said. “Legislators should be putting all of their energy into creating policies to improve people’s lives and not focusing on these attempts at cheating the system.”

Protecting redistricting integrity

While mid-cycle redistricting might not be an immediate concern for voting rights advocates in Georgia, Nichola Hines, president of the , said that any state disrupting the typical redistricting cycle is inviting chaos that affects the entire country.

“My primary concern is, of course, initiating this cycle, because once we deviate from the established norm, it will undoubtedly facilitate other states, including Georgia, in redrawing maps without the benefit of current census data,” Hines said.

Marijke Kylstra is a senior democracy policy and research coordinator at , an organization focused on ensuring communities are accurately counted during the census. The nonprofit also works to build civic engagement infrastructure in communities that have been historically marginalized in democratic processes.

Kylstra said that mid-decade redistricting undermines democracy and feeds polarization, regardless of where it is happening.

“It decreases people’s trust in our democracy,” Kylstra said. “If we’re seeing politicians drawing the lines for partisan gain, then it’s going to make people feel, rightly, like they don’t have the same voice or representation in their district. Maybe it’s the party you agree with or identify with, but overall, it’s not good for our democracy when people are feeling disempowered because the lines are being drawn in a way to create certain results.”

Hines said when voting maps are designed to empower people rather than shield politicians from accountability, communities can flourish.

“Voters get to vote for politicians who sympathize and empathize with their needs, and they’re able to elect those candidates of their choice,” she said.

Illustration at top by the Ů�Ÿ��.

Ů�Ÿ��

Together We Stand

Elevating Hope

Tracking Hate

Hate Map

More

About

Ways to Give