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On May 23, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court The decision was made by 6 to 3 Allowing racial discrimination in drawing voting maps, ignoring the voices of Black voters challenging racial divisions, and undermining efforts to build a multiracial democracy in the United States.
The ruling is not in line with international human rights treaty Binding on the United States, requiring it to protect the right to vote without discrimination, and Prohibition Policy Whatever the intention, the effect is discrimination based on race.
The Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that found South Carolina Republican state lawmakers discriminated against black voters when drawing recent congressional maps. The lower court had said the South Carolina maps violated the U.S. Constitution’s right to equal protection of the laws.
When South Carolina Legislative re-enactment In 2021, the state removed hundreds of thousands of residents from its 1st Congressional District, including more than 60% of Charleston County’s Black residents. Even the state-appointed cartographer admitted that the new map “Huge racial disparities“This result ensures that black people in South Carolina have only one meaningful chance to vote. One of seven Representatives of the United States Congress, though One quarter It accounts for 10% of the state’s total population.
Black voters have debate They are asking the court to provide remedies for claims that the new maps silence their voices, diminish their political power and are discriminatory, and they are fighting against these claims of discrimination and violation of their voting rights.
The majority of the Supreme Court sided with South Carolina Republican lawmakers who said the map was designed primarily with political voting patterns in mind, not race. Their ruling rejected a ruling that lower courts used to rule that South Carolina had a significant Reliance on ethnicity data in the process of redistricting.
Three dissenting Supreme Court justices highlight The ruling’s devastating impact warned of the court’s message to state legislatures that they could suppress minority votes whenever they could find a race-neutral reason to do so. “In the realm of elections in particular, where ‘an ugly pattern of pervasive racial discrimination’ has long prevailed, we should demand better from ourselves, our political representatives, and especially from the Court as a whole,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote.
Congress should pass John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement ActThis would prevent states with a history of racial discrimination from implementing maps like South Carolina has now.
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