A federal court has given the order to the state of Mississippi to redraw its state legislative districting map. The court has mandated the inclusion of additional Black-majority Senate and House districts.
Late on Tuesday, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi issued a ruling in agreement with civil rights advocates. The court found that the districting map, which was adopted and approved two years ago by the Republican-majority state Legislature and administration, violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The ruling declares that the electoral power of Mississippi’s Black residents is unlawfully diluted.
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After an eight-day trial in February, a decision was made to redraw the districts by including two more Black-majority districts in the Senate and one additional Black-majority district in the state House.
In their ruling, the three-judge panel stated that the Mississippi State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and several individual voters who are the plaintiffs in the case have successfully proved discrimination against Black voters.
The state’s argument that political party preferences were the reason behind Mississippians’ voting access being affected was overruled by the court. The plaintiffs were successful in proving that “racially polarized” districts were the cause. Additionally, the court acknowledged that the Black population in Mississippi had increased while the White population declined after 2010. However, the 2022 redistricting maps did not reflect this demographic shift.
The NAACP’s claims that the maps were “unconstitutional racial gerrymanders” were dismissed by the jurists.
The decision to challenge the maps by the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups has been hailed as a victory for Black Mississippians.
According to a statement by Ari Savitzky, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU, the maps for 2022 have unfairly hindered the ability of Black Mississippians to participate fully and fairly in democratic processes in areas such as DeSoto County, Hattiesburg, and Chickasaw County. The attorney added that the Voting Rights Act requires more than what has been done, and the court has made the right decision in this regard.
As of late Wednesday, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch has yet to release a statement regarding the decision.
