South Carolina Republican state lawmakers must be allowed to implement their congressional map for this year’s elections, a federal three-judge panel ruled on Thursday, as the Supreme Court mulls whether the design is a racial gerrymander.
The reinstated map bolsters the GOP tilt of Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-S.C.) district, aiding Republicans in holding onto the seat in their quest to regain control of the House in November.
The state lawmakers are actively appealing the three-judge panel’s previous decision invalidating their map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. But the Supreme Court has not yet issued its decision, despite a request to rule by Jan. 1 because of the fast-approaching election.
Because of the delay, the three-judge District Court panel on Thursday agreed to the lawmakers’ request to reinstate their map for this year’s elections only. The lawmakers noted the candidate filing period is scheduled to close on April 1, with ballots scheduled to be sent out within weeks.
“Having found that Congressional District No. 1 constitutes an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, the Court fully recognizes that ‘it would be the unusual case in which a court would be justified in not taking appropriate action to insure that no further elections are conducted under an invalid plan,’” the panel wrote in their five-page ruling.
“But with the primary election procedures rapidly approaching, the appeal before the Supreme Court still pending, and no remedial plan in place, the ideal must bend to the practical,” the ruling continued.
The three judges were all appointed by Democratic presidents.
The decision reinstates a map that the three-judge panel found impermissibly shifted some 30,000 Black Charleston-area voters to a different district in violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The panel ruled that race was the predominant factor in the new design, rejecting the lawmakers’ contention they changed the boundaries for political reasons, to boost Mace’s chances.
But the panel had not ordered the lawmakers to immediately submit a remedial map as the case headed to the Supreme Court, meaning that the state’s congressional map had remained in a state of limbo in recent months.
“It is simply too late now to seek such a change in the panel’s orders or to rush through a remedial proceeding for 2024,” the lawmakers’ attorneys argued in written filings.
The plaintiffs who challenged the map, a Black voter and the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, had opposed the move.
“Contrary to Defendants’ pleas, thirteen full months of legislative inaction does not warrant a stay,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote in court papers. “There is still time to draft and enact a remedial plan for the 2024 congressional elections, and Defendants’ misleading and unproven assertions about election imminence and voter confusion fall well short of meeting their ‘heavy burden’ to justify a stay.”
The state lawmakers had also filed an emergency appeal at the Supreme Court seeking to reinstate their map, but the high court had not yet ruled.
