Civil rights groups have added several congressional districts to a lawsuit over “racially gerrymandered” redistricting maps, accusing South Carolina Republican lawmakers in an amended lawsuit filed Thursday of unconstitutionally redrawing lines so as to disadvantage Black voters.
New maps for areas including the 1st, 2nd and 5th Congressional Districts are based on state bills that “represent the Legislature’s intent to use race to maintain political power by unnecessarily packing Black South Carolinians into certain districts and cracking Black voters in other districts,” according to the amended complaint from filed by the South Carolina chapter of the NAACP
South Carolina's 6th District is the state's only majority-Black district, currently held by its sole congressional Democrat, U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn. The new map, the lawsuit argues, would keep that situation the same, while “working adeptly to deny the ability of Black voters to elect or even influence elections in any of the other six congressional districts.”
